Enhanced Oil Recovery in Oil & Gas Indutry - Wikipedia

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Enhanced oil recovery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enhanced Oil Recovery

(abbreviated EOR) is a generic term for techniques for increasing the amountof crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field. Using EOR, 30-

60 %,

or more, of the reservoir'soriginal oil can be extracted

[1]

compared with 20-40%

[2]

using primary and secondary recovery.Enhanced oil recovery is also called

improved oil recovery

or

tertiary recovery

(as opposed toprimary and secondary recovery). Sometimes the term

quaternary recovery

is used to refer to moreadvanced, speculative, EOR techniques.

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Contents

1 How it works

■

1.1 Gas injection

■

1.2 Chemical injection

■

1.3 Ultrasonic stimulation

■

1.4 Microbial injection

■

1.5 Thermal recovery

■

2 Economic costs and benefits

■

3 Examples of current EOR projects

■

4 Potential for EOR in United States

■

5 References

■

6 See also

■

7 External links

■

How it works

Enhanced oil recovery is achieved by gas injection, chemical injection, ultrasonic stimulation, microbialinjection, or thermal recovery (which includes cyclic steam, steamflooding, and fireflooding).

Gas injection

Gas injection is presently the most-commonly used approach to enhanced recovery. A gas is injectedinto the oil-bearing stratum under high pressure. That pressure pushes the oil into the pipe and up to thesurface. In addition to the beneficial effect of the pressure, this method sometimes aids recovery byreducing the viscosity of the crude oil as the gas mixes with it.Gases commonly used include CO

2

, natural gas or nitrogen.Page 1 of 5Enhanced oil recovery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia8/3/2009http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enhanced_oil_recovery&printable=yes

Oil displacement by carbon dioxide injection relies on the phase behaviour of the mixtures of that gasand the crude, which are strongly dependent on reservoir temperature, pressure and crude oilcomposition. These mechanisms range from oil swelling and viscosity reduction for injection of immiscible fluids (at low pressures) to completely miscible displacement in high-pressure applications.In these applications, more than half and up to two-thirds of the injected CO

2

returns with the producedoil and is usually re-injected into the reservoir to minimize operating costs. The remainder is trapped inthe oil reservoir by various means.

Chemical injection

Several possible methods have been proposed. Some successful applications are injection of polymers,which can either reduce the crude's viscosity or increase the viscosity of water which has also beeninjected to force the crude out of the stratum. Detergent-like surfactants such as rhamnolipids areinjected to lower the capillary pressure that impedes oil droplets from moving through a reservoir.

Ultrasonic stimulation

It has been proposed to use high-power ultrasonic vibrations from a piezoelectric vibration unit loweredinto the drillhead, to "shake" the oil droplets from the rock matrices, allowing them to move more freelytoward the drillhead. This technique is projected to be most effective immediately around the drillhead.[3]

Microbial injection

Microbial injection is part of microbial enhanced oil recovery and is presently rarely used, both becauseof its higher cost and because the developments in this field are more recent than other techniques.Strains of microbes have been both discovered and developed (using gene mutation) which functioneither by partially digesting long hydrocarbon molecules, by generating biosurfactants, or by emittingcarbon dioxide (which then functions as described in

Gas injection

above).

[7]

Three approaches have been used to achieve microbial injection. In the first approach, bacterial culturesmixed with a food source (a carbohydrate such as molasses is commonly used) are injected into the oilfield. In the second approach, used since 1985

[8]

, nutrients are injected into the ground to nurtureexisting microbial bodies; these nutrients cause the bacteria to increase production of the naturalsurfactants they normally use to metabolize crude oil underground.

[9]

After the injected nutrients areconsumed, the microbes go into near-shutdown mode, their exteriors become hydrophilic, and theymigrate to the oil-water interface area, where they cause oil droplets to form from the larger oil mass,making the droplets more likely to migrate to the wellhead. This approach has been used in oilfields nearthe Four Corners and in Beverly Hills, California.The third approach is used to address the problem of paraffin components of the crude oil, which tend toseparate from the crude as it flows to the surface. Since the earth's surface is considerably cooler thanthe petroleum deposits (a temperature drop of 13-14 degree F per thousand feet of depth is usual),

[10]

theparaffin's higher melting point causes it to solidify as it is cooled during the upward flow. Bacteriacapable of breaking these paraffin chains into smaller chains (which would then flow more easily) areinjected into the wellhead, either near the point of first congealment or in the rock stratum itself.

[11]

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Thermal recovery

In this approach, various methods are used to heat the crude oil either during its flow upward in thedrillhead, or in the pool, which would allow it to flow more easily toward the drillhead.

Economic costs and benefits

Adding oil recovery methods adds to the cost of oil — in the case of CO

2

typically between 0.5-8.0 US$per tonne of CO

2

. The increased extraction of oil on the other hand, is an economic benefit with therevenue depending on prevailing oil prices.

[12]

Onshore EOR has paid in the range of a net 10-16 US$per tonne of CO

2

injected for oil prices of 15-20 US$/barrel. Prevailing prices depend on many factorsbut can determine the economic suitability of any procedure, with more procedures and more expensiveprocedures being economically viable at higher prices. Example: With oil prices at around 130US$/barrel, the economic benefit is about 100 US$ per tonne CO

2

.

Examples of current EOR projects

In Canada, a CO

2

-EOR project has been established by EnCana at the Weyburn Oil Field in southernSaskatchewan. The project is expected to inject a net 18 million ton CO

2

and recover an additional

130 million barrels (21,000,000 m

3

) of oil, extending the life of the oil field by 25 years.

[13]

(Whencombusted, this extra volume of oil will produce nearly 60 million ton CO

2

, so in this case carboncapture and storage in combination does not result in a net reduction in atmospheric CO

2

). Since CO

2

injection began in late 2000, the EOR project has performed largely as predicted. Currently, some 1600m3 (10,063 barrels) per day of incremental oil is being produced from the field.

Potential for EOR in United States

In United States, the Department of Energy (DOE) has estimated that full use of 'next generation' CO

2

-EOR in United States could generate an additional

240 billion barrels (3.8

×10

10

m

3

) of recoverable oilresources. Developing this potential would depend on the availability of commercial CO

2

in largevolumes, which could be made possible by widespread use of carbon capture and storage. Forcomparison, the total undeveloped US domestic oil resources still in the ground total more than 1 trillionbarrels (1.6×10

11

m

3

), most of it remaining unrecoverable. The DOE estimates that if the EOR potentialwere to be fully realised, State and local treasuries would gain $280 billion in revenues from futureroyalties, severance taxes, and state income taxes on oil production, aside from other economic benefits.

References

^

DOE - Fossil Energy: DOE's Oil Recovery R&D Program(http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/eor/index.html)1.

^

http://www.energy.ca.gov/process/pubs/electrotech_opps_tr113836.pdf 2.

^

Hobson, Hobson; Eric Neshan Tiratsoo (1975).

Introduction to petroleum geology

. Scientific Press. ISBN0901360074, 9780901360076.3.

^

Walsh, Mark; Larry W. Lake (2003).

A generalized approach to primary hydrocarbon recovery

. Elsevier.4.

^

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

21st century technologies

. 1998. OECDPublishing.

pp. 39.

ISBN 9264160523, 9789264160521.5.

^

Smith, Charles (1966).

Mechanics of secondary oil recovery

. Reinhold Pub. Corp.6.

^

"Tiny Prospectors",

Chemical & Engineering News,

87

, 6, p. 20

7.

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