Technology Focus: EOR Performance and Modeling (January 2012)
Authors: Bai Baojun 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus

In spite of continued investment and advances in exploiting alternative-energy sources, oil and natural gas will continue to be a significant portion of US and global energy portfolios for decades. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) uses unconventional hydrocarbon-recovery methods that target the approximately two-thirds of the oil volume remaining in reservoirs after conventional-recovery methods have been exhausted. Though limited by high capital and operating costs, EOR techniques will have a substantial effect on the future supply of oil.

In 2011, SPE hosted an EOR conference in Kuala Lumpur, and three workshops to address EOR technologies in Malaysia, Kuwait, and the Syrian Arab Republic. The Malaysia workshop focused on chemical-EOR methods, the Kuwait workshop addressed opportunities and for challenges of EOR methods in the Middle East, and the Syrian Arab Republic workshop discussed EOR in carbonate reservoirs. More than 300 EOR papers were published in SPE conferences, with many additional presentations in EOR workshops. These papers address important issues related to practical application of conventional EOR methods and the development of novel EOR technologies. The topics cover experience with, opportunities for, and challenges of EOR technologies; fundamental study of EOR mechanisms for different methods; feasibility study and improvement of an EOR method for a specific reservoir; EOR-screening criteria; reservoir surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation technologies; reservoir simulation and modeling; lessons learned from EOR pilot and field trials; and some novel EOR methods.

Polymer flooding has been proved the most cost-effective chemical-EOR method in the laboratory and in the field. A recent focus on polymer flooding evaluated associative polymers because of their advantage over traditional hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymers; thus, one paper about comparing the flow behavior of associative polymer and HPAM in porous media was selected for this feature.

CO2 injection is a win/win strategy because it can enhance oil recovery and be used for CO2 storage in reservoirs to reduce greenhouse-gas levels in the atmosphere. However, CO2 EOR targets maximum oil recovery while CO2 sequestration targets maximum storage capacity without leakage. One paper featured here provides some guidance to balance the two technologies.

Steamflooding has been applied successfully in heavy-oil reservoirs. However, one paper synopsized in this feature will describe successful steamflooding in a light-oil reservoir.

Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

SPE 142668 Enhanced Waterflood for Middle East Carbonate Cores—Impact of Injection-Water Composition. By Robin Gupta, ExxonMobil Upstream Research, et al.

SPE 142105 A Simplified Model for Simulations of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Floods. By Mojdeh Delshad, SPE, University of Texas at Austin, et al.

SPE 144294 Large-Scale High-Viscous-Elastic-Fluid Flooding in the Field Achieves High Recoveries. By Wang Demin, SPE, Daqing Oil Company, et al. \

SPE 144599 A Combined Experimental and Simulation Workflow To Improve Predictability of In-Situ Combustion. By M. Bazargan, Stanford University, et al.

SPE 147858 In-situ Combustion Using Sugar Dust, ‘Sweet Reservoirs’—A Smart and Better Alternative by Panchamlal, SPE, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, et al.

SPE 147999 Lessons Learned From Nine Years of Immiscible-Gas-Injection Performance and Sector-Modeling Study of Two Pilots in a Heterogeneous Carbonate Reservoir by Lakshi Konwar, SPE, Zakum Development Company, et al.