Stepan surfactants are used in 3 major oil field market segments: Drilling, Production, and Stimulation. Technologies Stepan offers to the oil field service sector are: Sulfates/Sulfonates, Betaines, Quaternaries, Esters, Bacteriacides and low VOC, highly biodegradable solvent replacements.
For drilling, Stepan offers a wide variety of sulfates, sulfonates and betaines to produce stable foams in most any kind of down hole conditions. Stepan also offers a line of alkoxylated amides for use as shale inhibitors during the drilling operation as well as methyl esters for use as solvents in hydrophobic drilling fluids.
For production, Stepan offers phosphate ester and quaternary ammonia compounds for use in corrosion inhibition. Stepan quat technologies offers some clear advantages to the industry in terms of higher biodegradability and lower toxicity. Stepan also offers a full line of biocidal quats and triazene to treat microorganisms both down hole and post extraction.
For stimulation Stepan can custom formulate high stability foaming systems for formation blocking as well as foam fracturing. Stepan has a variety of cationic quaternaries for use in visco-elastic systems.