Abstract: A one-pot method of preparing sulfonic acid-terminated polyisobutylene by sulfonation with acetyl sulfate of living polyisobutylene in a single step. The method permits preparation of sulfonated telechelic polyisobutylenes (STPs) by "inifer" initiated carbocationic polymerization of isobutylene with Lewis acid to form a polymer, followed by the addition in the same reaction vessel of acetyl sulfate at the polymerization temperature or the decomposition temperature of the complex.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for determining the permeability and the porosity of small sections at and just below the surface of a slabbed sample of porous rock or other material. The measurement is performed by forcing air or other gas through a central passageway of a deformable (e.g. rubber) probe tip pressed against the surface of the sample to be tested. Permeability of the matter directly under the probe tip is computed from the ratio of flow rate into the sample to the pressure drop between the gas in the probe-tip and the ambient atmosphere. A preferred and an alternative means for measuring flow rate are disclosed involving the use of an optical interferometer to detect displacement of a bellows chamber.

Abstract: Solvent-type flooding fluids comprising light hydrocarbons in the range of ethane to hexane (and mixtures thereof) are used to displace crude oil in formations having temperatures of about 20 degrees to about 150 degrees Centigrade and pressures above about 650 psi, the light hydrocarbons having dissolved therein from about 0.05% to about 3% of an organotin compound of the formula R.sub.3 SnF where each R is independently an alkyl, aryl or alkyaryl group from 3 to 12 carbon atoms. Under the pressures and temperatures described, the organotin compounds become pentacoordinated and linked through the electronegative bridges, forming polymers within the light hydrocarbon flooding media to render them highly viscous. Under ambient conditions, the viscosity control agents will not readily be produced from the formation with either crude oil or water, since they are insoluble in the former and only sparingly soluble in the latter.

Abstract: This specification discloses a method of producing hydrocarbons from an unconsolidated hydrocarbon-bearing formation that is penetrated by a well that has an irregular wall adjacent the formation. Granular particles that are water-wet are injected down the well to fill the irregularities in the wall and a packer that has lateral passageways therethrough is set against the well wall. Pressure is applied via the packer to the formation in an amount no greater than the overburden pressure on the formation and hydrocarbons are produced from the formation via the lateral passageways of the packer into the well.