The invention belongs to the technical field of oil exploitation, and particularly relates to a
foaming agent for oil exploitation and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method comprises the following steps: (1) adding 5-heptylbenzene-1, 3-
diol and a catalyst into a high-pressure reaction kettle, purging a pipeline and the reaction kettle with
nitrogen, vacuumizing, stirring, heating to 80-85 DEG C, stopping vacuumizing, adding epoxypropane at one time, carrying out heating and heat preservation reaction for the first time, introducing
ethylene oxide, carrying out heating and heat preservation reaction for the second time, and cooling to
room temperature; and (2) adjusting the pH value to 5-6 by using
phosphoric acid, cooling to below 10 DEG C, dropwise adding
chlorosulfonic acid, and controlling the temperature to react to obtain the
foaming agent. Based on 1 mole part of 5-heptylbenzene-1, 3-
diol, the dosage of the
propylene oxide is 4-20 mole parts, the dosage of the
ethylene oxide is 10-80 mole parts, and the dosage of the
chlorosulfonic acid is 1.8-2.8 mole parts. The
foaming agent has the advantages of large foaming volume, long drainage half-life period,
salt resistance,
hardness resistance and
temperature resistance.