STUDY OF THE SUPERFICIAL TENSION COMPONENTS IN VENEZUELAN CRUDE OIL. A NEW TOOL.

Douglas J. Escalante A., ^a  Vladimir León. ^b

^a Laboratorio de Petróleo Hidrocarburos y Derivados, Departamento de Química, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias y Tecnología, Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia  Edo. Carabobo. Apartado  código 3336. e-mail: djescalante@uc.edu.ve

^b Laboratorio de Biotecnología del Petróleo. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (IDEA). Caracas - Venezuela. e-mail: vleón@idea.gov.ve

The introduction, to beginning of the 90^th by C. J. Van Oss of the superficial tension components, constitutes a landmark of great importance in the description of condensed phases polar and their interactions. The application of these concepts to the petroleum industry would allow to determine the superficial tension of solids, like reservoir rocks and the superficial tension components of crude oil and their changes with different treatments. This would become of great help, to try to predict the contact angle in porous means, to determine the wettability of the present fluids in the reservoir.

With this end one carries out determination of the superficial tension components of crude oil, measured with liquid patterns, such as: water, Dimethylsulfoxide, Ethylene glycol, Formamide and Glycerol. The measures of interface tension  were made for different Venezuelan crude oil, originating as much of the West, as of the east of the country in contact with liquid patterns, and later the values of superficial tension component (STC) for each one were determined. 

hBeing difference in the values of STC for each crude oil one, which evidence that the present interactions in each crude oil one depend strongly on the chemical composition of the same one. These differences can be associated to behaviors different as the case from the foamy crude oil.