2018 EOR Survey in China-Part 1

Abstract

Abstract This paper provides field scale EOR survey in China which is in line with biennial worldwide EOR survey published by Oil& Gas Journal (OGJ). The EOR progress in China is not available due to language difference and other reasons in OGJ EOR survey. From 2018, EOR survey in China will be published biennially. The first part of this survey mainly focuses on basic information. Chemical flooding, unconventional heavy oil, green recovery and natural gas recovery progress in China will be surveyed and discussed in detail in the other four parts elsewhere. The EOR projects including field tests and field applications in China are summarized in the same pattern as OGJ to the largest extent for better readership outside China. Most data is collected from published journal papers and reports. Different from other countries, there are only four major oil companies in China: CNPC, SINOPEC, CNOOC and Yanchang Oil. The 28 branch companies of these four companies are both operator and owners. Oil and gas production from CNOOC is all offshore. CNPC is the largest oil company in China and its oil production in 2016 accounts for 54% oil production in China. EOR survey in China includes chemical flooding (polymer, SP and ASP flooding, gas flooding (CO2, nitrogen and air), thermal production, MEOR, and foam flooding. EOR production in China in 2016 accounts for 18% total oil production, while chemical EOR accounts for 10 %. Up to present, there has been more than 34 ASP flooding projects in China, most in Daqing. The total ASP oil production in 2016 is 407 million tons. More than 30 SP flooding projects have been carried out, with incremental oil recovery factor of 7%-18% OOIP. More than 170 polymer flooding projects have been carried out. Polymer flooding has been used widely in Daqing, Shengli, Xinjiang, Liaohe, He'nan and Bohai. The incremental oil recovery from polymer flooding and ASP flooding is 7%-15% and 18%-30% OOIP respectively. Gas flooding in China is not as successful as chemical EOR. Polymer flooding production in the largest offshore oilfield in CNOOC accounts for 25% total oil production in 2016. While EOR production in China accounts for 15%-18% in recent years, however, the world EOR oil production only accounts for about 3.3% total oil production. EOR is greatly affected by oil price, as indicated from 26 years EOR content change in America. It is the first time that detailed EOR survey in China in line with worldwide EOR survey in OGJ is given. The EOR survey in China provides valuable and helpful information for engineers and researchers in oil and gas industry.