An Integrated Approach for the Application of the Enhanced Oil Recovery Projects

Abstract

This work presents an integrated approach for screening and application of the most suitable enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method to the oil fields. The proposed approach can be used to support the decision making during the critical technology selection phase. By providing early stage advice through detailed design, the approach can provide a bridging service to bring the EOR projects from screening and laboratory stages into the field applications. EOR screening for some of the Egyptian oil fields is presented. The screening procedure and criteria are based on field results and previous experiences, and involve the analysis of both surface and subsurface fields’ conditions. The results indicate that the most appropriate EOR methods for the studied oil fields appear to be CO2 and alkali-surfactant-polymer injection methods. The study shows that CO2-EOR could help Egypt simultaneously to reduce the emissions of CO2 and increase the recovery factor by 5 to 15 %. The study then identifies the main technological barriers to the implementation of CO2-EOR, and indicates key areas that require further research and development. In addition, the challenges and the main technical concerns in applying CO2-EOR technologies are discussed in the light of the lessons learnt from large scale worldwide EOR projects. Such study is an original contribution to achieve successful EOR applications and could significantly increase the reserves of the mature oil fields.