Good to the Last Drop: Enhanced Oil Recovery

An increase in aging oil production wells has propelled the demand for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology, which can advance global oil recovery efforts and boost the growth of the exploration and production market.

Enhanced oil recovery techniques revive aging and depleted oil reservoirs by extracting heavy oil resources. The process applies steam or gas to alter the makeup of a reservoir, thereby enhancing oil displacement in the well.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 89 billion barrels of additional oil lay trapped in aging onshore wells, a stark contrast to the country’s current domestic reserve which is estimated at 21.9 billion barrels.

If E&P companies extracts 1% additional oil out of aging wells, more oil would be added to global oil reserves, thereby lowering the country’s dependency on foreign oil. In addition, the Department of Energy claims that the use of EOR technology may increase the country’s oil recovery from 30% to 60%. By adding this unrecovered oil to the U.S. proven reserves, the country would rank fifth in the world for the size of its oil reserves.

EOR technology doesn’t come without drawbacks. EOR technologies are capital-intensive as they require the use of gas and other components for injection into the production well. Therefore, not all wells are candidates for EOR technology. Each field is thoroughly evaluated before a determination is made whether to proceed with the process.

Although more expensive to employ, analysts suggest that EOR can increase production from a well up to 75% recovery. In fact, a research report published by BCC Research forecasts that the global EOR market will grow to $34.4 billion by 2018.