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Enhanced Oil Recovery

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Enhanced Oil Recovery
INTRODUCTION

Oil and Gas refers to the naturally occurring liquid and natural gas specifically made up of long chain hydrocarbons and various organic compounds found beneath the surface of the earth in entrapments called reservoirs; the presence of oil and gas in these reservoirs is the reason humans survive everyday and carry out their daily activities effectively. Different activities are usually carried out to ensure that the oil and gas present in the reservoirs continue to support humans through their day-to-day activities; such activities include exploration, development, production and finally, abandonment and reclamation. This process is what is referred to as “the oil and gas process”. On completion of this process, numerous efforts are made to increase the quantity of oil that can be extracted again from the oil well and we refer to these efforts as “recovery”. There are three main types of recovery, primary recovery (solution gas, gas cap and natural water drive) secondary recovery (gas injection and water flooding) and tertiary recovery (enhanced oil recovery EOR, polymer flooding and steam flooding). In this article, analysis on the “enhanced oil recovery” technology and trends will be emphasized upon.

ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY

Enhanced oil recovery becomes very vital when oil production has to be increased to obtain a recovery percentage of at least 75% (Rigzone, 2009). This can only achieved by using any of the four basic methods of EOR; these methods include chemical flooding, miscible gas displacement, thermal recovery and microbial EOR. Among these four mentioned, “Thermal methods are the oldest EOR methods, they have been developed over the last thirty years” (Elsevier, 1981). Miscible gas displacement also called “gas injection” by some engineers refers to the process of injecting CO2, natural gas and Nitrogen into a reservoir; “in miscible gas displacement, the gas is injected at or above the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) which


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