Introduction

 Even with modern production techniques, a large share of the oil in a

reservoir is not produced during primary and secondary recovery.
Some of this oil can, however, be accessed through the use of more
complex and energy intensive extraction techniques such as the
injection of heat, chemicals, CO2 or other gases.
 These techniques have been successfully and commercially
deployed in multiple countries over many decades. The top 10 from
the list of projects (232 fields) is presented.

EOR EOR production

Region Country Field EOR Type Operator
Class 2017 (b/d)
Other
Kazakhstan Tengiz Sour gas miscible Chevron 150000
Eurasia Gas
AsiaPac China Daqing Chemical ASP CNPC 140100
Middle East Oman Mukhaizna Thermal SAGD Oxy 123000
Petrobra
Brazil Lula/Sapinhoa Field CO2 100000
CSAM Miscible s
North United
Thermal Steam 79500
America States Kern river Chevron
AsiaPac China Shengli Thermal Steam Sinopec 78500
Polymer,
China Shengli Chemical Sinopec
AsiaPac Surfactant 75800
AsiaPac Indonesia Duri Thermal Steam Chevron 54000
North
51700
America Canada Pelican Lake Chemical Polymer CNRL
Eurasia Russia Ural fields Thermal Steam Lukoil 50000

 Despite this range of projects, today (2017) EOR represents only

around 2% of global oil supply and it remained in the background
even during previous periods of high oil prices (such as between
2010 and 2014,as well as the present since 2021).
 Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is oil recovery by the injection of
materials not normally present in the reservoir. This definition
embraces all modes of oil recovery processes (drive, push-pull, and
well treatments) and covers many oil recovery agents.
  Most important, the definition does not restrict EOR to a particular
phase (primary, secondary, or tertiary) in the producing life of a
reservoir.
 Many thermal methods are commercial in both primary or secondary
modes. Much interest has been focused on tertiary EOR, but this
definition does not place any such restriction.
 The definition does exclude waterflooding and is intended to exclude
all pressure maintenance processes. Sometimes the latter distinction
is not clear since many pressure maintenance processes have
displacement character.
 Moreover, agents such as methane in a high-pressure gas drive, or
carbon dioxide in a reservoir with substantial resident CO2, do not
satisfy the definition, yet both are clearly EOR processes. Usually the
EOR cases that fall outside the definition are clearly classified by the
intent of the process.
 The production stages of a conventional crude oil project are often
split into three phases.
- Primary recovery is oil recovery by natural drive mechanisms,
solution gas, water influx, gas cap drive, or gravity drainage.
- Secondary recovery refers to techniques, such as gas or water
injection, whose purpose, in part, is to maintain reservoir pressure.
- Tertiary recovery is any technique applied after secondary recovery.
Nearly all EOR processes have been at least field tested as
secondary displacements.

IOR VS. EOR

 The terms EOR and IOR have been used loosely and
interchangeably at times.
 IOR, or improved oil recovery, is a general term which implies
improving oil recovery by any means. For example, operational
strategies, such as infill drilling and horizontal wells, improve vertical
and areal sweep, leading to an increase in oil recovery.
 Enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, is more specific in concept, and it
can be considered as a subset of IOR. EOR implies a reduction in oil
saturation below the residual oil saturation.
The main classes of EOR technologies in the investigation (232 fields)
were:

 Thermal EOR: steam is used to heat the oil in the ground, reducing its
viscosity and making it easier to move. This is most often applied in
heavy oil reservoirs.
 CO2 EOR: CO2 is injected into the subsurface. In
a miscible CO2 process, the CO2 mixes with, or dissolves into the oil,
increasing its mobility and susceptibility to being pushed by water. In
an immiscible process, the gas does not dissolve into the oil but rather
pushes the remaining oil; this is often combined with water injection.
 Other gas injection EOR: similar to CO2-EOR, but with other gases
injected such as natural gas or nitrogen.
 Chemical EOR: water soluble polymers and/or surfactants are added
to water that is injected into the subsurface. Polymer-loaded water has
a high viscosity and can push more oil out of the pores in the oil-
bearing formation. Surfactants reduce the surface tension of the oil,
improving its ability to be displaced by water.
 Other EOR: this class contains all other technologies such as microbial
EOR, in which micro-organisms are injected in the reservoir, or
combustion EOR, which involves in-situ burning of some of the oil to
generate both heat and gases that help the rest of the oil move more
easily.
Number of EOR projects in operation globally, 1971-2017
 Top down

 Other

 Other gas injection

 Chemical

 CO2-EOR

 Thermal

 Up to the time (2017) there are around 375 EOR projects operating globally,
producing just over 2 million barrels per day (mmb/d) of oil.
 This is a 0.7 mmb/d increase from the last assessment carried out in 2013. EOR’s
share of global crude production seems to have remained broadly stable over time:
around 2% of global oil production.
 Historically EOR production has been concentrated in North America, but in recent
years other countries have started deploying EOR technologies.
 Malaysia has started offshore EOR production, while the United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, India, Colombia and Ecuador have all started pilot EOR
projects. Oman has also registered a major increase in EOR production.
 As a result, while in 2013 three quarters of all EOR projects (providing 0.8 mmb/d)
were located in North America, in 2017 this proportion has fallen to 40%.
 There has also been a wave of efforts to apply EOR technologies in offshore fields;
today there are around 15 offshore projects, which mostly inject natural gas.

EOR production in the New Policies Scenario, 2000-2040

mmb/d
Top down

Other gas EOR

CO2 EOR
Chemical EOR
Thermal EOR

 While the lifecycle cost of EOR can be competitive with other production
opportunities, it frequently entails high up-front capital requirements and long pay-
back periods. As a result, EOR production has historically relied on some form of
support or strategic choice.
 Today over 80% of global EOR production benefits from some sort of government
incentive or is prioritised by national oil companies as part of their efforts to
maximise the return from national resources.

Main reasons for EOR not grown to greater extent, which could be mentioned are:

 The incentive to pursue EOR is often highest when and where there are concerns
over resource scarcity. There are fewer such concerns today.
 There is a current preference in the upstream industry for projects that can
generate fast returns. An EOR project requires time to plan, test and implement,
and generates incremental production only in the latter stages of a field’s lifetime.
 EOR has become a niche business among oil and service companies, and the
requisite skills, technologies and expertise are not widely available. Five midsize
oil and gas companies currently operate the majority of CO2-EOR projects in the
United States.
 Costs for EOR have come down since 2014, but the costs of other projects –
including shale and offshore developments – have come down more quickly. For
the moment at least, EOR technologies struggle to compete with other investment
opportunities.
For EOR to thrive (flowirish) in this way, a number of measures and initiatives would need
to gain momentum soon. For example,

- through governments and industry undertaking a concerted effort to screen fields

and determine EOR potential in resource-rich areas;
- the timely piloting of EOR-projects in countries where it has not previously been
used;
- continued fiscal incentives, including CO2 credits in the case of CO2-EOR;
- technological advances such as decreasing the volume of chemicals that need to be
injected;
- taking full advantage of the potential for digitalisation to generate a better
understanding of the sub-surface.
 Even given the large disparity between the commercial success of the various
processes, we need all forms of EOR to maintain reserves at an acceptable level.
This is because each process, even commercially successful ones, has
demonstrated success on only a part of the EOR target thus far.
Reserves
 Reserves are petroleum (crude and condensate) recoverable from known reservoirs
under prevailing economics and technology. They are given by the following
material balance equation:
PresentReserves = PastReserves + AdditionsToReserves-
ProductionsFromReserves
 Clearly, reserves can change with time because the last two terms can change with
time.
 Adding to Reserves. The four categories of adding to reserves are:
1. Discovering new fields
2. Discovering new reservoirs
3. Extending reservoirs in known fields
4. Redefining reserves because of changes in economics of extraction technology
 Reserves are estimated volumes of crude oil and other hydrocarbons anticipated to
be commercially recoverable from known accumulations from given date
 forward, under existing economic conditions, by established operating practices,
and under current government regulations.
 The Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS) is the result of more than
two years of collaboration by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the
World Petroleum Council (WPC), the America Association of Petroleum
Geologists (AAPG) and the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE)
and provides updated definitions and the related classification system for
petroleum reserves and resources.
The PRMS is available on the SPE website

 All reserve estimates involve some degree of uncertainty. The estimation of reserves
volumes is generally performed by experts who use their experience and professional
judgment in the calculation of those volumes.
 The PRMS incorporates a central framework that categorizes reserves and resources
according to the level of certainty associated with their recoverable volumes
(horizontal axis), and classifies them (production, reserves, contingent resources, and
 prospective resources) according to the potential for reaching commercial producing
status (vertical axis).
 There is also a distinct class for unrecoverable petroleum.
 When applying PRMS, technical specialists must determine a specific project that
will be used to recover the reserves and resources and determine the chance that it
will be commercially successful, then must estimate the volume expected to be
recovered from the “project.” (Reserves are a subset of resources).
 Production is the quantity of oil and natural gas that has been recovered already (by a
specified date).
 Contingent resources are resources that are potentially recoverable but not yet
considered mature enough for commercial development due to technological or
business hurdles.
 Prospective resources are estimated volumes associated with undiscovered
accumulations, as of a given date. This class represents a higher risk than contingent
resources since the risk of discovery is also added.
 Some petroleum will be classified as “unrecoverable” at this point in time. While a
portion of these quantities may become recoverable in the future, some of the
remaining portion may never be recovered due to physical or chemical constraints in
the reservoir.
 The highest valued category of reserves is “proved” reserves with “reasonable
certainty” (P90) of being recovered (high degree of confidence that the volumes will
be recovered). It means reserves must have all commercial aspects addressed.
 “Probable”(P50) or “possible”(P10) reserves are lower categories of reserves,
commonly combined and referred to as “unproved reserves”.
 The term 1P is frequently used to denote proved reserves, 2P is the sum of proved
and probable reserves and 3P the sum of proved, probable and possible reserves. The
best estimate of recovery from committed projects is generally considered to be the
2P.
Reserves during the production period will transform from 3P reserve to final cumulative
production or ultimate reserve (cumulative production according to S-curve).

Volumetric and Material Balance methods

 Volumetric methods attempt to determine the amount of oil in place (OIP) by using
the size of the reservoir as well as the physical properties of its rocks and fluids.

 V (A x h) is reservoir volume, ϕ - is average porosity, So - is average oil

saturation, and bo - is volume factor of oil formation.
 Then a recovery factor is assumed, using assumptions from fields with similar
characteristics, based on rock and fluid properties, reservoir-drive mechanism and
others. Thus reserves (recoverable oil) can be calculated by applying this
coefficient.
 Stabilized oil under surface conditions (either 60 F and 14.7 psi or 15.56 C and
101.325 kPa) is called stock tank oil. Oil reserves are calculated in terms of stock
tank oil volumes rather than reservoir oil volumes.
 bo can be defined as ratio of Volume at reservoir condition to Volume at the surface
condition (at 60F and 14.7psi). It usually varies from 1.0 to 1.7. A formation volume
factor of 1.4 is characteristic of high-shrinkage oil and 1.2 of low-shrinkage oil.
 As hydrocarbon reservoir production data became available Material Balance and
Decline Curve Analysis methods became the predominant ones for estimating
reserves.
 Material Balance method is based upon the fact that the cumulative withdrawals of
fluid from reservoir are equal to the cumulative expansion of original reservoir fluids
and rock plus the influx of any fluids into reservoir.
 Required inputs are the PVT properties of oil, gas and water, as well as rock
properties of porosity and compressibility. The original reservoir temperature and
pressure must be known along with the original reservoir fluid content and the
source of natural energy (solution gas drive, natural water drive …). Fair accuracy
may be achieved when production reaches about 10% of the ultimate reserve.
 A natural extension of Material Balance method is numerical Reservoir Simulation.

Distribution of proved oil reserves: 2000, 2010 and 2020 , Percentage