Enhanced Oil Recovery in Malaysia

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhilst the incremental oil potentially recoverable by the application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes can only be reliably estimated by a detailed study of each reservoir, in order to provide an early guide to the scope for EOR in Malaysia, a preliminary survey has been carried out. The approach in this preliminary survey was to develop a set of screening criteria for the various processes being developed and to use these criteria to identify possible candidate reservoirs. The potential for incremental oil recovery was then determined by applying factors obtained from the assessment studies referred to above or from published sources.The review of EOR potential within Malaysia has suggested that only a small number of reservoirs are unsuitable for EOR and there is substantial scope for increasing the yield from known light oil and gas condensate reservoirs. The possible contribution that could be made by individual processes is fairly evenly distributed between polymer floods, surfactants, carbon dioxide and nitrogen or hydrocarbon gas.The enforcement of strict conservation measures and depletion control had change the development strategy by integrating EOR into conventional method of production with an early implementation of EOR in order to maintain the viability of EOR projects.