Patent ID: 7728044

Claim:
A method for affecting the viscosity of an aqueous fluid gelled with a viscoelastic surfactant (VES) comprising: providing an aqueous fluid gelled with at least one VES; adding to the aqueous fluid, in any order, a glyceride oil containing a fatty acid and a compound selected from the group consisting of organic bases, alkali metal bases, alkali earth metal bases, ammonium bases, inorganic bases and combinations thereof; and forming in situ a soap reaction product of the fatty acid with the compound; where the VES is selected from the group consisting of non-ionic surfactants, cationic surfactants, amphoteric surfactants, zwitterionic surfactants and combinations thereof, where the VES gels the aqueous fluid by forming elongated micelles; and where the soap reaction product is present in an amount effective to increase or decrease the viscosity of the gelled aqueous fluid.