Management
J. Roger Hite, SPE, Business Fundamentals Group; S.M. Avasthi, SPE, Avasthi & Assocs. Inc.; and Paul L. Bondor, SPE, BonTech
Planning Successful EOR Projects
High oil prices and concerns about future oil supply are leading to a
renewed interest in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a group of tech-
nologies that can significantly increase recovery from existing oil
reservoirs. Most of the experience with EOR is still in the United
States, principally with CO2 flooding in the Permian Basin in west
Texas and with the several thermal processes in the San Joaquin
Valley in California. A listing of these projects is compiled every 2
years.1 But worldwide applications are growing. Thermal recovery of
bitumen in Alberta, Canada, is increasing rapidly, and thermal pro-
jects have been successful in Venezuela, Indonesia, and elsewhere.
Chemical and polymer floods are being implemented in China.
New applications increasingly will be worldwide. Each one will
depend on careful planning to design an EOR project specific to the
properties of the oil, the reservoir conditions, and the availability of
injectants. In many situations, new EOR technology will be necessary.
The processes being applied in the United States were tailored for those
conditions and do not necessarily translate to other geologic provinces.
This article attempts to distill past experience to define the state of the
art in planning EOR projects. It is grounded in more than 30 years of
experience by the authors in a wide variety of EOR applications.
The Planning Process
Successful EOR project management depends on good planning.
“Prior proper planning prevents poor performance,” they say, and it
is especially true when EOR is involved. Planning includes:
• Identifying the appropriate EOR process.
• Characterizing the reservoir.
• Determining the engineering design parameters.
• Conducting pilots or field tests as needed.
• Finishing with a plan to manage the project to meet or exceed
expectations.
From the outset, and at every step along the way, we strongly rec-
ommend that careful attention be paid both to economic studies
and to reservoir simulation as the reservoir characterization and
engineering design progresses. In this way, the chances of success
are greatly improved. Fig. 1 illustrates the interaction of all three.
Economics is the ultimate project driver. After all, unless the pro-
ject is comfortably profitable, it should not be pursued in the first
place. But reliable economics need good performance predictions.
Good simulation models need good data. And what data are need-
ed is determined by which project elements the economics is sensi-
tive to. Each guides and depends on the others.
Reservoir-Performance Modeling
Good simulation models provide the performance data needed for
profitability studies. Together, they greatly reduce risk of wasted or
misdirected efforts. There is a five-step process in developing a
reservoir performance model.
• Select appropriate simulator.
• Collect valid data.
• History match.
• Predict EOR-project performance.
• Conduct sensitivity studies.
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As a rule, modeling EOR processes requires more data and more
time than primary- or secondary-recovery processes. The impor-
tance of reservoir simulation was driven home early in our careers.
Years ago, after a moderately successful field pilot, we implemented
an expansion project using improved technology. The economics
was favorable and was supported by extensive laboratory data. But
the expansion project was a complete failure. Not only did we not
recover any oil, but we also could not even explain the causes. It was
later, after reservoir simulators were developed for this process, that
we were able to model the project and explain what happened. If
good simulators had existed and been used at the outset, we could
have saved ourselves a lot of time and money. One experience like
this makes you a lifetime believer in reservoir simulation.
Simulators are not perfect, of course. They are very good at pro-
ducing a performance prediction consistent with what is known
about the reservoir and the recovery process. But they cannot
include what is not known. For this reason, simulation models need
to be kept up to date as new information is gained. Comparing sim-
ulation predictions to actual results is the best way to uncover
important information not previously identified.
Economic Studies
Profitability is the primary driver. It justifies implementation of the
EOR process and governs how it should be designed. Profitability is
strongly influenced by product prices, which as we all know are high-
ly variable and impossible to predict. Over a long period of time, the
average wellhead price in the United States has averaged U.S. $20/bbl
in today’s constant dollars. Over the last 30 years, however, the aver-
age has been closer to $25/bbl. Either of these should provide a good
initial starting point, wherever you think future prices are headed.
It is important to begin economic analyses early in the process-
selection step. Start with simple economic screening models to aid
in the choice of process, and add sophistication as the design pro-
gresses. Economics can be used to guide the engineering design,
help design any pilot, and help manage ongoing surveillance.
Process Selection
EOR processes are designed to do one of two things—improve
sweep efficiency or improve displacement efficiency. The former
overcomes reservoir heterogeneities or poor mobility ratios.
Appropriate EOR processes in these cases are polymer flooding or
one of the thermal methods. The latter overcomes capillary forces to
recover oil left behind by primary recovery or waterflooding. EOR
processes applicable to these reservoirs are chemical flooding, mis-
cible gasflooding, immiscible gasflooding, or microbial processes.
For a quick guide on which to choose, see the papers by Taber et al.
in the SPE literature.2,3 While selecting a process, it is important to
include simple performance models and screening economics.
Reservoir Characterization
Many an EOR project has failed because of surprises in the geolog-
ic and petrophysical description of the reservoir. Your Earth model-
ers are your friends. Work with them to find out as much as possi-
MARCH 2005

Modeling Engineering Data Economics
EOR Process
Analog Data
Selection
Screening
Geologic Studies
Analytic
Tools
Design Parameters
Lab Data (R&D)
Coarse Field Date
Simulation
Pilots / Field
Testing Detailed
Fine
Simulation
Economic
Models
Project
Implementation
Fig. 1—Economic studies, reservoir characterization and
engineering design, and reservoir performance modeling
proceed in parallel, each supporting the other.
ble about depositional environment, discontinuities, layering, and
the size and shape of the container. Even relatively small details can
be important. Channel boundaries, clay drapes, and minor fractur-
ing or faulting can have a big impact on flow paths. Mineralogy may
be important in understanding fluid/rock interactions.
In one case, the initial wells in a deltaic channel sequence were
well correlated in the beginning. Subsequent wells wound up out-
side the channel, however. Suddenly, large blocky sands looked thin
and shaley, spelling disappointment and disaster for this EOR pro-
ject. In another, a moderately large CO2-injection project failed
because the residual-oil saturation was not as large as had been esti-
mated. Log-inject-log data indicated a lower number, but the high-
er number indicated by material balance was chosen for design pur-
poses. It turned out that the more accurate number was the lower
one. The result was meager oil recovery.
Not understanding the reservoir adequately, and therefore not tak-
ing reservoir and process uncertainty properly into account, is proba-
bly the most common cause of failure in past EOR pilots and projects.
Engineering Design
Design parameters include those at the microscale (e.g., miscibility
pressures and mobilities) and the macroscale (e.g., reservoir pres-
sure and temperature, volume of injectant, and placement of wells).
Particular care should be paid to the interaction of reservoir (both
rock and fluids) and the selected process.
As the amount and accuracy of data improves, more-sophisticat-
ed performance models and economic tools are appropriate.
Sensitivity studies can be used to help define which parameters are
important to know and how accurate they need to be.
Here, a good understanding of the value of information comes into
play. The sensitivity studies will show that some parameters do not influ-
ence the economic results very much. These can be given much less
attention, or, perhaps, can be ignored. Others will have a strong influence
on profitability and, therefore, will warrant better understanding.
Remember, you need to know only enough to make the right decisions
and correct choices. Beyond that, data and information have no value.
Pilots, Field Tests
If there are important parameters and variables that are not well
understood, a field test or pilot may be needed. In our experience,
the best field tests are those designed to gather specific, targeted
information—that is, data identified by the sensitivity studies as
being important for the success of the project but which are not suf-
ficiently known from available sources. Some data are hard to mea-
MARCH 2005
sure in the laboratory or difficult to deduce from history matching.
These might include such factors as injectivity, residual-oil satura-
tion, and displacement efficiency. When these are critical for suc-
cess, a field test is justified.
“Oil-in-tank” pilots are generally not the best. “Oil-in-tank” pilots
are field tests in which success is measured by whether the designed
amount of oil is recovered in the stock tank. They are often difficult to
interpret with confidence, and they generally take years to complete.
During that time, there are inevitably changes in the operation of the
reservoir that complicate interpretation. Wells are reconditioned or
replaced, injection rates change, or pressures change. The impact of
these changes on the performance of the field test is seldom clear. Also,
field tests are usually done in a portion of a field. Swept volumes must
be estimated and are likely to change during the test as a result of the
operational changes listed above. Even in the absolute failure case, in
which no oil is recovered, such tests are less than helpful. They estab-
lish that the project did not work but do not provide answers as to why,
nor do they provide information on how to improve next time.
The best pilots are designed to use observation or monitor wells to
monitor specific events—for example, saturation, temperature, or pres-
sure changes over time vs. simulated expectations. These field tests typ-
ically take months to complete, not years, and provide specific answers
to identified questions. The answers can then be used to improve per-
formance models and economic studies to make smart decisions.
Project Implementation
Ensuring successful EOR projects does not end when the valves are
turned on. Ongoing surveillance is most important and should be
part of the project design. Good surveillance should be a partner-
ship between operations and engineering. If this is a new process,
operations personnel will need adequate training in what to expect,
what to watch for, and what to measure. The importance of good
eyes and ears on the ground, reliable data, and careful quality con-
trol should be emphasized.
Active surveillance plays a strong role in achieving targets.
Observation wells for monitoring performance, frequent well
reviews, computerized databases, and teamwork are all key. EOR
projects are not business as usual. Good use can be made of the sim-
ulation and economics models developed during the planning
phase. Kept up to date, they can guide improvements and adjust-
ments for years to come.
As with all technology implementations, change management can
be important—aligning people with a new way of doing things. This
means new work processes, better training, perhaps a new organiza-
tion, and a work culture that encourages success. (The importance
of change management will be addressed in one of the sessions at this
month’s SPE Digital Energy Conference, 23–24 March, in Houston.)
Conclusion
Successful EOR projects need good engineering design data, perfor-
mance models, and economic studies that proceed in parallel. Start
simple at the outset, and add sophistication as the design proceeds.
By keeping all three in play, projects can be designed to achieve opti-
mal performance and profitability. JPT
References
1. “Annual EOR Survey,” Oil & Gas Journal, 15 April 2004.
2. Taber, J.J., Martin, F.D., and Seright, R.S.: “EOR Screening Criteria
Revisited: Part 1—Introduction to Screening Criteria and Enhanced
Recovery Field Projects,” SPERE (August 1997).
3. Taber, J.J., Martin, F.D., and Seright, R.S.: “EOR Screening Criteria Revisited:
Part 2—Applications and Impact of Oil Prices,” SPERE (August 1997).
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