In 2025, La Luna Captiva tested two discovery wells (Pilon-1 and Pilon-2) and commissioned Surtek to evaluate nine drill stem tests confirming a dry gas discovery in the Upper CDO and Pre-CDO reservoirs. Surtek performed pressure transient analysis and nodal analysis based on the deliverability test results.

As La Luna Captiva advanced development of this high-profile discovery along Colombia’s San Jacinto fold belt in collaboration with JP Morgan, Surtek built the first dynamic reservoir simulation model using the PaleoScan 3D seismic geomodel, well-test data (permeability, pressures), and nodal analysis tubing tables. The model enables the operator to navigate the complex faulted structure, define optimal production rates, and support a development plan targeting nearly 10 Tcf of OGIP.

Surtek partnered with X Oil Development to design a miscible gas EOR project aimed at revitalizing low-pressure mature oil fields along the Clareton and Fiddler Creek trends. Surtek conducted extensive laboratory testing and numerical simulation to determine optimal injection rates and expected recovery.

A single-well chemical tracer test confirmed the ability to achieve miscibility at low pressure and was replicated in the simulation model to define miscible relative permeability behavior and forecast field performance.

The Instow project represents one of the most successful surfactant-based chemical floods in Canada, delivering approximately 15% OOIP incremental recovery at a total cost below $25/bbl (chemicals, facilities, and OPEX).

Surtek has contributed to more than 20 implemented Canadian chemical EOR projects and over 120 Canadian studies. The company worked extensively with Dome Petroleum in the 1980s and later introduced Husky to chemical EOR following its acquisition of Renaissance, contributing to more than 20 projects prior to Husky’s merger with Cenovus in 2020. Surtek remains one of the few firms with deep institutional knowledge of Canadian chemical EOR development.

A field injectivity trial in the high-temperature (180°F) Adena J Sand demonstrated that EOR-grade scleroglucan polymer can be manufactured, delivered, and injected at field scale with strong injectivity and no sandface plugging.

​

Bottomhole pressure and pressure transient analysis showed flowing resistance factors during injection (RF ≤ 2.5), with a sandface residual resistance factor (RRF) of ~1.3 and a PTA-derived larger-radius RRF of ~1.9–2.0. The test validated make-down equipment, shear-thinning behavior, and field monitoring methods, demonstrating that polymer viscosity can be preserved in harsh reservoirs within weeks—without waiting for offset production response.

Surtek began working with Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in 2015 as the company entered its EOR strategy and project design phase. Surtek contributed to the design of four EOR projects (SALB, RAMA, MNWR, SAUB), including technology screening, laboratory testing for chemical and miscible gas EOR, and development of history-matched reservoir simulation models to define recovery and optimal rates.

​

These results supported Pre-FEED pilot development plans covering subsurface design, facilities, testing, risk mitigation, and economics. Surtek later assisted with implementation of five EOR projects (SAMA, UNLF, RAZU, GBWR, SAUB), providing subsurface and project management support in some of the industry’s most challenging EOR reservoirs. Surtek has co-authored more than 20 technical publications documenting these efforts.

Surtek performed a global, data-driven review of decades of chemical EOR pilots and developed a practical formulation cost model to distinguish laboratory concepts from field-deployable solutions.

The study demonstrates why high-surfactant micellar designs frequently fail economically, and shows how optimized low-surfactant ASP/SP formulations combined with practical polymer flush volumes consistently deliver incremental reserves with controlled OPEX and manageable operational risk. Properly designed and implemented surfactant systems remain one of the most powerful tools for economic EOR.