|
 ENHANCED
OIL RECOVERY (eor)
The past and ongoing research into enhanced oil
recovery (EOR) can be roughly divided into four
general areas:
—Gas injection, including CO2, N2, NGL, flue
—Chemical, including
—surfactant, surfactant with polymer, surfactant with foam
—Thermal, including convention steam, steam assisted
gravity drainage, cyclic injection, and in-situ
combustion
—Conformance and related|
issues.
Each area has its own history, potential,
technology, opportunities and obstacles. The
obstacles can be categorized as technical, economic,
and legal/regulatory. Each area is needed to
maximize the production potential of the domestic
fields. The “prize” is quite large, however. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),
175 billion barrels have been produced in the U.S.
(excluding the deep and ultra-deep water Gulf of
Mexico. However, from those same fields 400 billion
barrels are “stranded” after traditional primary and
secondary oil recovery. This compares to an
estimated 21 billion barrels of proven reserves, so
the opportunities are enormous.
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|
White Paper – Issues,
Current Work and Future Direction
