EOR/IOR

OVERVIEW
Currently available primary- and secondary-oil-production tech- EOR/IOR
nologies leave behind two-thirds of the oil in place as stranded
oil. However, many analysis and field projects have shown that additional reading
significant oil-recovery increases are possible with improved/ available at the
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by gas injection, thermal recov- SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org
ery, or chemical injection. The first two methods have proved
cost-effective even at low oil prices. Current oil prices have cre- SPE 107095
ated renewed interest in more-costly chemical-based EOR methods such as gel “Field-Scale Wettability
treatment, foam flooding, polymer flooding, alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) Modification—The
flooding, and alkaline flooding. This year, we focus on chemical-based EOR Limitations of Diffusive
methods. Chemical-EOR methods focus on improving the sweep efficiency by Surfactant Transport” by
correcting reservoir heterogeneity or controlling fluid mobility, or they focus on W.M. Stoll, SPE, Shell
increasing displacement efficiency by reducing residual-oil saturation. International E&P, et al.

Gel treatment usually is intended to improve sweep efficiency and to reduce SPE 107776
excess water production in channeled or fracture-dominated mature reservoirs. “Improved ASP Design
A newer trend in gel treatment is to apply preformed gels for in-depth treat- Using Organic-Compound/
ments. These gels have been reported to penetrate deeply into superhigh-per- Surfactant/Polymer for La
meability streaks or fractures and seal or partially seal them off, thus creating Salina Field, Maracaibo
high flow resistance in formerly watered-out, high-permeability zones. When Lake” by E. Guerra, PDVSA
successful, these gel systems divert a portion of the injection water into areas Intevep, et al.
not previously swept by water.
SPE 107727
Foam flooding often is used to reduce gas mobility and to correct reservoir het- “Polymer Flooding: A
erogeneity and increase sweep efficiency for gasflooding. Foam can be injected Sustainable Enhanced Oil
into the reservoir by coinjection of gas and surfactant solution or by injection Recovery in the Current
of surfactant solution alternating with gas (SAG). Foam stability, surfactant- Scenario” by Ivonete
adsorption reduction, and optimized SAG-process design are the keys to con- P. Gonzalez da Silva,
trolling the economics of foam flooding. Petrobras, et al.

Polymer flooding is designed to control mobility for waterflooding. High- SPE 106901
molecular-weight and new high-temperature salt-resistant polymers have made “SAGD Optimization
polymer flooding more economical. Adding either an alkaline or surfactant With Air Injection” by
chemical, or both, in a polymer flood will scour residual oil from the rock, result- J.D.M. Belgrave, EnCana
ing in higher oil recovery than with polymer flooding alone. However, the scale Corporation, et al.
problem associated with alkaline limits the use of ASP flooding.

Wettability is of major importance to oil recovery, especially for fractured oil-

wet carbonate reservoirs where water flows through the fractures but does not
imbibe into the matrix because of negative capillary pressure. The chief concern
is to develop cost-effective chemical formulations that change the carbonate
wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. JPT

Baojun Bai, SPE, is an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at Missouri

University of Science and Technology (University of Missouri-Rolla). Previously, he
was a reservoir engineer and head of the conformance-control section at the Research
Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), PetroChina. Bai also
was a post-doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and a graduate
research assistant at the New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center for EOR
projects. He holds a BS degree in reservoir engineering from Daqing Petroleum Institute,
an MS degree in oil and gas production and development engineering from RIPED, and
PhD degrees in petroleum engineering and in petroleum geology from New Mexico
Institute of Mining and Technology. Bai serves on the JPT Editorial Committee.

42 JPT • JANUARY 2008