Extracting maximum oil from mature fields in a cost-efficient and safe manner is a puzzle that operators have long toiled over.
Once the easy-to-produce oil has been recovered, out comes the EOR toolbox. When the extension of a reservoir’s natural drive through waterflooding or gas flooding comes to an end, operators can utilize a variety of tools to squeeze out the last recoverable drops of oil. And like the TV infomercials of old, the call of “but wait, there’s more” rings with a fourth option from the reservoir’s residual oil zones (ROZ).

Fields like the North Sea’s Forties—nearing its 40th anniversary of first production—or the Permian Basin’s Scurry Area Canyon Reef Operators Committee (SACROC) unit—with 67 years of operation—are producing today due to continued evolution and application of EOR technologies.

What does the future hold for EOR? According to a Markets and Markets report published earlier this year, the EOR technology market is expected to grow at a healthy rate of 18.2% between 2014 and 2019, with the chemical EOR market estimated to be one of the fastest growing markets.

The EOR toolbox is large, and for one operator, pre-screening chemical EOR methods helped determine the best EOR strategy to apply in its deepwater reservoirs. Operators in the Middle East are looking for new techniques to enhance recovery in carbonate reservoirs. The challenge of increasing recovery in the tight Bakken Shale with the aid of CO2 is under the microscope as researchers at the University of North Dakota look to bump up the play’s recovery factor. Meanwhile, studies in the Permian Basin are uncovering methods to produce the once unproducible ROZ.

Read each story:

Middle East Bucking The Trend In Drive For New EOR Technology

PDO Undertakes Ambitious EOR Project

Recognition, Exploitation of ROZs Coming Of Age

EOR In The Bakken

Unlocking Reserves In Deepwater Fields