‘Soap Cocktails’ Help U.S. Shale Boost Oil Production
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Aug 30, 2026, 4:00 PM CDT
- U.S. shale producers are increasingly using advanced chemical surfactants to release more oil from tight rock and boost recovery from existing wells.
- Chevron has deployed its proprietary treatment in more than 600 wells, while Ovintiv says surfactants have helped improve Permian oil productivity by around 9%.
- Combined with AI, longer laterals and improved stimulation techniques, surfactants could help sustain U.S. shale growth despite declining well productivity and fewer rigs.
U.S. shale innovation is not limited to drilling techniques and engineering breakthroughs. Producers are testing and already getting more oil out of existing wells in the shale formations with the use of advanced chemicals.
The mixture of cocktails of various chemicals, the so-called surfactants, helps release oil from the tight and shale formations. And shale drillers, including supermajors and independent producers, are increasingly perfecting the right cocktail mix to release more oil from the rocks.
These advanced chemical mixtures, together with the drilling of longer laterals and other technological breakthroughs, are helping producers get more oil out of the ground with the same or fewer number of rigs.
Chevron, for example, has developed a proprietary chemical technology to address the problem that only about 10% of the oil trapped in the shale and tight formation ever reaches the surface with fracking only.
“A simple way to think about this chemical treatment is like washing grease off your hands with soap and water,” Johannes Alvarez, Chevron’s enhanced oil recovery manager, says.
“The right chemical mixture can help loosen oil from the rock and fractures so it can move more easily toward the well.”
This extraction method with surfactants helps loosen oil from the rock, make it easier for oil to move through tiny spaces, and improve the flow of production, Chevron notes.
As of July 2026, the U.S. supermajor was using these advanced chemicals in more than 600 wells, with the first use tested in the Permian, of course, the biggest shale field in the U.S. and Chevron’s key upstream asset, where the company produces about 1 million barrels of oil-equivalent per day.
After the Permian, Chevron has expanded the use of its proprietary advanced chemical solutions to the Bakken, in the Rockies, and in Argentina. Related: Gas Prices in Asia and Europe Jump as Qatar Extends LNG Force Majeure
Last month, Chevron even moved to commercialize its proprietary technology under a technology licensing agreement with ZL Chemicals, which works in enhanced oil recovery chemistry. Under the licensing agreement, ZL may commercialize Chevron-developed chemical surfactant technology. ZL plans to offer products and services utilizing the licensed technology under the Vantis™ brand.
“Technology creates more value when it can be applied broadly,” said Chevron’s chief technology and engineering officer Ryder Booth.
“Through this licensing agreement, we’re creating a pathway for ZL to bring this technology to a broader market, and at scale.”
Advanced chemicals, AI, and stimulation technologies have the potential to keep the Permian Basin production growing further, Chevron’s CEO Mike Wirth said on the Q2 earnings call last month.
“When you’re leaving 90% of the molecules in the ground, there's a huge incentive to figure out how to unlock all of that,” the executive added.
Chevron will get licensing revenue from the licensing agreement with ZL, “but in a company our size, the real opportunity is on the application of the chemicals,” Wirth said.
It’s not only Chevron that is testing various surfactant cocktails to boost oil recovery in shale formations.
Ovintiv, for example, said at the Q2 earnings call that it had completed about 400 Permian wells with surfactants since 2019, and has seen about a 9% improvement in oil productivity versus a non-surfactant-treated well.
“We think surfactants account for roughly half of the productivity uplift we've seen over the last few years. At a cost of only $100,000 per well, these custom treatments are generating impressive returns,” Greg Givens, EVP and COO at Ovintiv, said.
Surfactants are a real “needle mover” for boosting well productivity, Ovintiv’s chief executive Brendan McCracken told Bloomberg in an interview.
This year, almost every well in the Permian is going to have a surfactant treatment, McCracken said on the earnings call, adding that the company is now just starting to deploy the surfactant cocktail to the Montney shale play in Canada, too.
Diamondback Energy also tests ways to increase recovery using surfactants and other enhanced oil recovery methods, CEO Kaes Van't Hof wrote in a letter to stockholders early this year.
“We invested approximately $30 million in late 2025 on a pilot project testing 60 wells with surfactants. These results have been positive, and we expect to build on our learnings with more testing planned this year,” the executive added.
As well productivity in the shale wells drops dramatically after several months of exploitation, advanced chemicals and various surfactant ‘cocktails’ have the potential to boost U.S. shale production more than analysts and industry had expected just a year ago.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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