The
oil industry is progressively facing pressing challenges related to the
enhancement of well productivity in line with the demand for the daily increase
of global oil consumption, in particular in the developing countries. The rate
of demand has been unexpectedly increasing during the last few decades, this to
some extent has been related to the ever increasing consumption levels in the
developing countries as well as the limited findings of new and conventional oil
fields. Many of the reservoirs around are now accounted as brown fields which
are at the tail phase of their lives. To this end, techniques such as Enhanced
Oil Recovery (EOR) have been regarded as methods to increase the oil recovery
from brown fields with a view of meeting the global oil supply demand.
Global
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) market is expected to reach USD 283 billion by
2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing global
energy demand is expected to remain a key driving factor for global EOR market.
Rising number of mature oil wells, particularly in the Middle East and Latin
America coupled with high productivity yields associated with EOR techniques is
also expected to have a positive impact on the market growth over the next few
decades. Long lead time coupled with volatile crude oil prices is expected to
remain a key challenge for market participants.
How can Enhanced
Oil Recovery contribute to global demand?
Enhanced
Oil Recovery (EOR), also known as tertiary recovery method, utilizes various
technologies and methods to increase the recovery of oil after the recovery
from primary and secondary recovery techniques. The overall objective of EOR is
to enhance the mobility of hydrocarbons within the reservoir. Over the last few
decades, EOR has been mainly used in mature oilfields where in some cases
significant incremental recovery has been recorded.
In
general, the primary recovery mechanism can be accounted for the recovery of
10-20 % of the reservoirs initial oil in place, whilst the secondary recovery mechanisms
could increase the oil recovery by a further 10-30%. At some stage of secondary
recovery mechanism, it becomes evident that the recovery of the remaining oil
in place can be achieved by engagement of EOR techniques. Usually EOR techniques
can recovery an extra 5-30% of the remaining oil in place.
According
to the International Energy Agency (IEA), by the year 2035 the global energy
demand is expected to rise by at least one-third. This is mainly related to the
rising living standards in China, India and current energy policies in the
Middle East. Having said this, by the year 2030, significant amount of oil
recovered will be mainly from fields yet to be developed, fields yet to be
discovered and additional EOR techniques.
Considering the large amounts of oil recoverable and the need to meet
future demand, policies and measures designed to provide incentives to
industries and continues support for public R&D in this area will be
required.
By Arash Farhadi
Lead Chemical EOR Reservoir Engineer
Primera Reservoir
Strong focus on decision making and uncertainty analysis combined with advanced, state of the art and complex workflows.
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