Evaluation and Optimisation of Polymer Flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Uganda’s Reservoirs

Uganda’s vast oil reserves estimated at 6.5 billion barrels hold the promise of transforming the country’s economy. Yet beneath the Albertine Graben lies a difficult challenge: Uganda’s crude oil is highly waxy and does not flow easily through reservoir rocks. In Phase 1 of our collaboration with the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), we explored whether anionic surfactants could help release this trapped oil. The results were encouraging. The surfactants reduced interfacial tension, altered rock wettability, and improved oil mobility. The project supported two master’s students and produced a review article and an original research manuscript, both awaiting PAU’s publication approval. However, the study revealed that mobilizing oil was only part of the solution. In Uganda’s heterogeneous reservoirs, injected water may bypass large volumes of oil, reducing sweep efficiency. Phase 2 therefore begins a new chapter: investigating polymer flooding using Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide (HPAM) and Xanthan gum. These polymers thicken injected water, helping it move more uniformly through the reservoir and push additional oil toward production wells. A new master’s student will evaluate both polymers under Uganda’s distinctive conditions, including waxy crude oil, variable salinity, and reservoir heterogeneity. The goal is to identify a technically effective and economically viable polymer-flooding strategy tailored to Uganda’s emerging petroleum industry