In this study, the use of coal fly ash nanoparticles as a stabilizer to generate stable foam was explored. First, the fly ash nanoparticles will undergo two-step chemical treatment to synthesize a smaller nanoparticle of higher purity. The fabricated nanoparticle's size was 50 nm and the composition was 99 zeolites and 1 sodium compounds were characterized using Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS). Static foam stability test was done to screen the type and concentration of nanoparticle that has the potential for a foam stabilizer for further core displacement tests. The highest half-life of foam was by fabricated nanoparticles (FN) with a concentration of 80:20 at 875 s. The core displacement test was done to determine the effectiveness of fly ash nanoparticles on oil recovery. The oil recovery results showed that foam with the presence of FN nanoparticles produced a higher oil recovery than those without nanoparticles. The mobiliy reduction factor (MRF) value of foam with nanoparticles was two times higher than foam without nanoparticles. A sensitivity analysis is done to determine whether the factor governing oil recovery and MRF is the foam stability or surfactant adsorption. The oil recovered by foam injection increased by 30.69 when the surfactant adsorption was reduced by 75, however, the oil recovery was only half of this value when the foam half-life was tripled. This may indicate that surfactant adsorption is still a major influence to be monitored on increasing oil recovery while focusing on foam stability. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd