Enhanced oil recovery

This article is about processes applicable to conventional oil fields. For processes applied to oil sands, see oil sands.

Injection well used for enhanced oil recovery

Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated EOR), also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. Although the primary and secondary recovery techniques rely on the pressure differential between the surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery functions by altering the chemical composition of the oil itself in order to make it easier to extract. EOR can extract 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil,[1] compared to 20% to 40% using primary and secondary recovery.[2][3] According to the US Department of Energy, carbon dioxide and water are injected along with one of three EOR techniques: thermal injection, gas injection, and chemical injection.[1] More advanced, speculative EOR techniques are sometimes called quaternary recovery.[4][5][6][7]

  1. ^ a b "Enhanced Oil Recovery". www.doe.gov. U.S. Department of Energy.
  2. ^ Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA (1999). "Enhanced Oil Recovery Scoping Study." Archived 2017-01-20 at the Wayback Machine Final Report, No. TR-113836.
  3. ^ Clean Air Task Force (2009). "About EOR" Archived March 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Hobson, George Douglas; Eric Neshan Tiratsoo (1975). Introduction to petroleum geology. Scientific Press. ISBN 9780901360076.
  5. ^ Walsh, Mark; Larry W. Lake (2003). A generalized approach to primary hydrocarbon recovery. Elsevier.
  6. ^ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 21st century technologies. 1998. OECD Publishing. pp. 39. ISBN 9789264160521.
  7. ^ Smith, Charles (1966). Mechanics of secondary oil recovery. Reinhold Pub. Corp.