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EXPLORATION GAME
Exploration for oil is complex and multy-disciplinary activity. There is no direct
method to locate commercial accumulation of hydrocarbon in the subsurface
of the earth. Elements that are essential for oil and gas generation and
accumulation are source rock, cap rock, anticlinal structure, time for
maturation and synchronization of oil generation, migration and entrapment.
Different disciplines involved are geology, geophysics and geochemisty.
Geological assessment gives indication of oil generation potential of a basin
and suitable exposed structures present. Geophysical seismic survey brings
out suitable subsurface structures for hydrocarbon entrapment. Geochemical
studies suggest nature of source rock and possible generation potential. All
sources of data are analyzed and commercial oil occurrence is predicted. It is
followed by drilling wild-cat exploratory well to verify hypothesis. Exploratory
well may result either into a discovery-well or provide information to plan
future exploratory activities. This iterative process continues in many basins
for long periods before basin attains petroliferous status. Commercial
hydrocarbon discovery is knowledge based, innovative, difficult, time
consuming and cost intensive proposition. Above all, it is a risky venture.
Exploration in-puts are deterministic but out-come is probabilistic. It is highrisk and high-reward game. Ingenuity of the professional holds a key to
success.
Exploration success is about one in ten. In every petroliferous basin it is
always diminishing returns after a peak. Future discoveries will be in more
hostile environment like deep off-shore.

Reserve accretion by exploration world over for a period

1960 to 2000 years brings out distressing trend(Figure above). It is noted that
discovery of oil was higher than oil production up to 1980 while for the last 20
years discovery is less than production. It also emerges that drilling of more
wells does not help in-spite of better technological in-puts for exploration.
Green vertical bars represent positive reserve addition and red bars indicate
negative growth of oil reserves. Prospects of finding new large reserves are
dwindling.
This trend focuses attention to look towards oil field development as an
important opportunity to maximize oil recovery from new discoveries and
evaluate old producing or depleted fields for application of EOR and other
innovative technologies
STAGES OF OIL FIELD DEVELOPMENT
After discovery, an oil field is delineated to know oil field size to plan
development. Development document is a comprehensive study that brings
out possible techno-economic scenarios and recommends a plan for drilling
wells, creation of facilities for oil production, reservoir management,
optimization oil recovery by application of secondary/EORmethods ,prediction
of oil and gas production profile and time-frame of different activities.
It would be of interest to recapitulate primary and secondary development
concepts and forces responsible for low oil recovery before discussing EOR
processes.
Primary Recovery
Primary method of oil recovery uses natural reservoir energy i.e., natural
water drive, gas cap drive, solution gas drive, and combination of these
processes. Production rates of oil field are adjusted to optimize oil recovery.
Primary recovery produces oil and gas using the natural pressure of the
reservoir as the driving force to push the oil to the surface. Wells are often
stimulated through the injection of fluids, which fracture the hydrocarbonbearing formation to improve the flow of oil and gas from the reservoir to the
wellhead. Other techniques, such as pumping and gas lift help production
when the reservoir pressure dissipates.
Primary recovery varies from field to field and depends on physico-chemical
properties of reservoir rock and oil. Average oil recovery is about 15% of
original oil in place (OOIP).Primary recovery is more historical since current
practice is to optimize project economics by introducing pressure
maintenance.

Secondary Recovery
In case of secondary oil recovery, natural reservoir energy is augmented by
fluid injection. These fluids include water, gas and gas water combination
(Water Alternate Gas-WAG) through properly distributed injection wells.
Secondary recovery commonly uses water flooding and gas re-injection to
produce remaining oil remaining after the primary recovery phase. Water is
most common and user friendly agent. Gas is injected in gas-cap to maintain
pressure where it is available and cheap. When these methods are applied at
primary recovery stage it called pressure maintenance. It has been
experienced that pressure maintenance has resulted in better oil recovery,
production rates and improved project economics.
Secondary and primary method together recover about 30% of OOIP.

Reasons for poor Oil recovery.

Oil recovery hovers around 30% of OOIP.There are various factors that
contribute to over all poor recovery. Permeability of reservoir rocks plays an
important role. High permeability leads to better oil recovery. Permeability can
be improved near well-bore by hydro-fracturing of reservoir rock. Oil viscosity
is another crucial parameter. High viscosity of oil resists oil flow and reduces
oil recovery. Capillary forces that exist in porous media of reservoir rock and
interfacial tension between oil water and gas have significant role in adversely
affecting oil recovery.
Oil is driven in to production well either by water or gas. For good oil recovery
it is essential that oil has greater mobility than water. Another factor is
adequate energy to push oil in to producing well. High heterogeneity in
reservoir rock will result in poor volumetric sweep efficiency and would
adversely effect on oil recovery. All these factors control recovery
mechanism.
Secondary and EOR methods try to minimize effects of some of the adverse
factors responsible for holding oil back in the reservoir rock, add energy to
reservoir and there by improve oil recovery.
Primary and secondary methods together still leave behind 70% of oil in
place. This means more oil is left behind un-recovered than oil produced.
Moreover in heavy oil reservoirs, primary and secondary recovery is
negligible. Heavy oil of Mehsana belt which is marginally heavy, is expected
to have only 7% oil recovery without EOR.

Tertiary/Enhanced oil Recovery

It is apparent that EOR techniques ultimately must be applied to acquire
these enormous energy resources left after primary and secondary efforts.
EOR processes include all methods that use sources of energies and/or
material inputs to recover additional oil. EOR techniques try to improve
displacement and sweep efficiency.
They can be broadly classified in to three categories.
Thermal methods: Steam flooding and In-situ Combustion.
Chemical methods: Injection of polymer, surfactant, caustic singly or in
combination ( Alkaline Surfactant Polymer-ASP)
Miscible methods: Injection of miscible or partially miscible hydrocarbon
gas,CO2, and nitrogen.
Convergence of oil recovery stages
Benefits of application of pressure maintenance over water flooding at
secondary stage are well recognized in the industry. In view of current oil
prices, it is prudent to initiate EOR from the start of development stage.
It may thus be noted that customary and familiar sequential approach of
primary secondary and EOR activities has become invalid and irrelevant.
There is a need to change mindset and come out with comprehensive initial
development plan that would include EOR and other latest technologies.
International experience
EOR production world over is about 1681,000 barrels per day which form3 %
of total production. India produces 18,000 barrels per day of EOR oil. US
production is 780,000 barrels. Applying the right combination of new EOR
technologies allows to continue to increase production in the mature fields.
World EOR production
Country
USA
Canada
Venezuela

Thermal
440
8
108

Miscible
340
127
11

Chemical
17
-

EOR total
780
152
119

Russia
India
Others
Total

20
12
171
759

90
4
280
852

50
2
1
70

160
18
452
1681

U.S. target for EOR efforts was 377 million barrels (see diagram below).
However, it may seen that out this potential, 45% oil fields have already been
abandoned. Enhanced oil recovery methods can now be applied to remaining
oil, which is estimated to be 208 billion barrels.
This diagram high-lights an important lesson that EOR oil, if not exploited
timely, is lost for ever.
US Reserves Scenario

Thermal Methods
Thermal methods are main means to produce heavy oil with gravity less than
20 degree API and viscosities in the range of 200 to 2000 centipoises. These
heavy oils do not respond to primary and secondary recovery. It becomes
mandatory to introduce EOR methods from very beginning of development.
Heavy oil is recovered by introducing heat into the reservoir through thermally
controlled processes. Steam flooding and in situ combustion are the most
frequently-used thermal recovery methods. Incase of steam flood water is
heated and converted in to steam on the surface. Production of heat is
achieved in In-situ Combustion by burning a small part of resident oil to
generate heat in the formation it- self.

Steam flooding is used extensively in the heavy oil reservoirs in USA,Canada

and Venezuela, which have extensive heavy oil reserves.
Steam flooding is conducted by injecting steam into reservoirs that are
relatively shallow, permeable, thick, and low-pressure. The dominant
mechanism in thermal recovery by steam is the reduction in the viscosity of
the oil, allowing oil to flow into the well bore.

Steam Injection

Color code: Red-Steam zone, Green-Hot water, Dark olive-Hot oil

In situ combustion introduces heat in the reservoir by a process of air

injection and down hole ignition to burn portion of the oil to displace remaining
oil by reduction of viscosity, supplementing energy and improving sweep
efficiency due to driving-slug of air and water. The combustion front is

sustained and propagated through continuous injection of air into the

reservoir.

In-Situ Combustion
( injection / production wells and different zones in reservoir)

Color code: Yellow- burnt zone, Red- burning, Black- coke, Light-bluecracking and steam, Deep blue- light hydrocarbon, Dark olive green- native
oil bank.

Biggest commercial in-situ combustion project is being successfully operated

in heavy oil belt of Mehasana with enviable safety record for last 20 years. It
may be pointed out that in-situ combustion is considered most difficult
process to operate and input intensive. It is a tribute to Indian expertise in
specialized field of EOR.
Thermal methods give highest recovery and greatest certainty of success.
Thermal methods account for 50% of EOR oil production. More over, thermal
recovery is at the lowest cost as compared to other EOR methods.

Chemical Methods
Chemical methods focus mainly on alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP)
process that involves the injection of micellar-polymers into the reservoir.
Chemical flooding reduces the interfacial tension between the in-place crude
oil and the injected water, allowing the oil to be displaced efficiently. Micellar
fluids are composed largely of surfactants mixed with water. Goal of polymer
flood is to improve mobility ratio of oil and displacing agent. Water is made
more viscous by adding polymer.
Polymer flood helps to shut off excess water in producing wells, and to
improve sweep efficiency to produce more oil. Chemical field trials by industry
indicated in the past that surfactants can recover up to an additional 28% of
reservoir oil; however the economics had not been favorable when the price
of oil was factored against the cost of surfactants and polymers. This situation
has changed and re-look on economics is warranted particularly for ASP
flood. Chemical flooding technologies are subdivided into alkaline-surfactantpolymer process, polymer flooding, profile modification, and water shut off
methods.
Miscible methods
The term miscible means the mixing of two fluids like oil and CO2 to form
single-phase fluid. Use of miscible gas drive has grown rapidly and accounts
for 50% EOR production.
Gas flooding technologies primarily use carbon dioxide flooding as a method
to produce more oil from the reservoir by creating miscible zone with reservoir
oil and effectively improving displacement efficiency.
Figure below shows injection/ production wells and zones created in the
reservoir during the process. Miscible zone of CO2and oil is pushed by CO2
and water zones which in turn is chased by drive-water. Miscible zone drives
oil-bank and resident oil into the oil production well. In this process water and
gas slugs alternate each other and is commonly referred as water alternate
gas (WAG) mode. WAG mode improves sweep efficiency to improve oil
recovery.

CO2 Injection

Gas flooding technologies experiment with number of customized

preparations like foams, gels, and thickening agents to improve sweep
efficiency. CO2 floods are extensively used in some regions of the U.S.,
particularly in West Texas and the southern Rocky Mountains.
In the past decade, flooding with nitrogen gas, flue gas, and enriched natural
gas have also shown beneficial results by increasing recovery. Nitrogen and
flue gas may be useful in areas where CO2 is not economically available for
EOR application.
Selection of EOR process:
Once preliminary reservoir information is collected, EOR screening is
followed by laboratory evaluation. Selection of EOR usually follows several
steps.
# Laboratory studies test proposed EOR in the samples of rocks and oil from
reservoir at reservoir temperature and pressure. These results provide insight
and parameters for EOR performance prediction.
# Fluid flow simulation, based on geologic reservoir model, can start with
assessment of performance prediction for primary and secondary recovery.
This would be followed by EOR process performance prediction based on
laboratory results.
Reservoir simulators are useful in the design and prediction of performance in
EOR projects. Improved hardware and software programs are available for
EOR applications.

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# Proposed EOR process is then tested in the field-pilot to conform expected

performance in field condition before full-scale implementation. Ideally pilot
test is performed in an area that is geologically representative. Monitoring and
data acquisition throughout pilot testing provide useful information for
planning full-scale commercial operation.

# For commercial operation, important considerations are to secure EOR

inputs, to optimize and scale the surface facilities, and to meet environmental
and safety requirements.
APPLICATION OF EOR IN OFFSHORE OIL-FIELDS
EOR application in off-shore oil fields needs special considerations during
planning and evaluation. Life time of wells and platforms are shorter due
corrosive environment, and additional new wells and platforms for EOR
becomes very costly. Early conceptualization of EOR is necessary to provide
space for EOR hard-ware on production- platforms and additional slots for
drilling injectors from well-platforms in case of new discoveries. Production
well spacing should be appropriate and well completions in consonance with
EOR requirements.
Application of EOR in old and declining fields like Mumbai High has not left
with enough time for going through

WAY FORWARD:
ROLE OF DGH:
DGH needs to insist Oil Companies to prepare final development plans for
the present old and new fields to include EOR and latest technologies to
improve oil recovery in phased manner to 40% of OOIP which may form
National target.
In case of new discoveries like Mangala, DGH ensures that EOR is
conceptualized and initiated almost from very beginning and development
plan aims to achieve National Recovery target.
ROLE OF MOPNG
It should empower DGH to insist on comprehensive development plans
including EOR mandatory both for present oil fields and new discoveries.

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It needs to develop and put in-place monitoring-system for EOR

implementation.

OIL FIELDS FOR EOR APPLICATION:

OLD FIELDS:
ONGC is producing EOR oil on commercial scale from Santhal,Balol,
Becharaji and Lanawa fields by in-situ combustion. Total In-situ combustion
from these four fields is 14000 barrels per day. It produces 4400 barrels from
Gandhar field by hydrocarbon miscible process. In addition 1600 barrels are
produced by polymer flood in Sanand field.
Total EOR oil production of 18000 bbls which form 3% of 6000000 bbls
ONGCs oil production.These figures bring out vast scope and challenge for
application of EOR techiniques.Almost all matured/ declining oil fields need to
be reviewed for EOR application.Time frame of EOR application within life of
wells and facilities is required to be prepared for each field and activities are
to be religiously monitored.
Similar activity schedule for Oil Indias oil fields in Assam needs to be
prepared.
YOUNG FIELDS
Rava,Panna,Laxmi,Dholka fields are young fields under production by JVs
and anticipated ultimate recovery is expected to be low by primary and
secondary methods. They are also candidates for EOR and other techniques.
NEW DISCOVERIES:
Mangla and other fields in Barmer basin are yet to be developed. Initial
development plans for these fields are approved by DGH. It is right time to
conduct laboratory and simulation studies to select EOR process, evaluate
economic benefit and accordingly plan activivities.