Both experimental and theoretical studies are conducted to advance understanding and predictability in the successful application of the combined surfactant-alkali-polymer flooding for tertiary oil recovery. During this past year, experimental studies on the system chemistry were made on alkaline/acidic oil systems with and without added surfactant and/or cosurfactant. The acid was found to play a major role in the lowering of the interfacial tension in these systems. An interferometric technique was used to observe the presence of ordered structures inside stratifying films formed from micellar solutions of anionic surfactants and other colloidal suspensions. The structural component of the disjoining pressure in thin films with micellar structure, which gives rise to an increased stability in emulsions, foams and colloidal suspensions, has been calculated for the first time. A novel technique for measuring the dilatational viscosity at both the gas-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces is developed. The measured interfacial dilatational viscosities correlate directly with emulsion and foam stability experiments. 119 refs., 50 figs., 25 tabs.