Abstract: Injection of steam or other thermal fluid for recovery of heavy crude oil is accompanied by or followed by injection in the same well of a solution of petrochemical sulfonate and a co-surfactant, the co-surfactant being either an olefin sulfonate or a propane sulfonate of an ethoxylated alcohol or alkyl phenol. The surfactant mixture is followed by injection in the same well of a water-soluble polymer solution and additional oil is recovered from production wells.

Abstract: The invention extracts surfactants from produced emulsions of oil, water and surfactants from enhanced oil recovery operations and concentrates the surfactants into an aqueous solution. The produced emulsion is mixed with an alkali metal chloride salt, and butanol or pentanol, and allowed to separate into two phases, an oleic phase and an aqueous phase. The oleic phase is then mixed with fresh water containing about 1% to about 10% by weight of isopropanol, ethanol or methanol, and the mixture is allowed to separate into at least two phases, a substantially water-free and surfactant-free crude oil phase and an aqueous phase containing virtually all of the enhanced oil recovery surfactants originally within the produced emulsion. The surfactants in the aqueous phase may be reutilized for further enhanced oil recovery operations.