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Oil, Gas and Mining Technical Division

An Introduction to Enhanced Oil Recovery

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

By: Sdr. Arif Azhan bin Abdul Manap

ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to introduce the concept of Enhanced Oil Recovery or EOR to the readers.
It will focus its discussion on EOR concept and various processes currently applied in the oil and gas
industry.

INTRODUCTION
After discovery, most of oil reservoirs
typically undergo primary recovery
period in which natural energy
associated with a reservoir is used to
recover a portion of the oil. Mechanisms
at the early production stage include
fluid and rock expansion. In its original,
undisturbed condition, the reservoir
rock and fluid are under high pressure.
When the initial reservoir pressure
begins to drop due to oil production,
both rock and fluid expand. Fluid will
expand much more as compared to rock.
This concept is known as compressibility.
Energy from the rock and fluid (oil and
gas) expansion will push the oil towards
the producers.
After pressure falls below the bubble
point pressure (pressure below which the
first gas bubble appears from the oil
solution) due to fluid withdrawal from
the reservoir, additional recovery
resulted from gas liberation and
expansion (secondary gas cap) can be
achieved. For reservoirs connected to
aquifers, water encroachment from an
aquifer can both displace oil from
reservoir pore space and help moderate
the pressure decline caused by fluid
withdrawal. A typical range for primary
4
recovery efficiency is 12 to 15% of
original oil in-place (OOIP).
In order to decrease the rate of
pressure decline, gas is injected into the
gas cap and/or water is injected into the
aquifer so that oil production could
be continued. This prolonged period of
primary recovery is called secondary
recovery. Typical recovery factor for
secondary recovery is additional

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CONCEPT

Figure 1: Secondary recovery by water injection

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EOR refer to the processes of

producing liquid hydrocarbon
(oil) by methods other than
using natural reservoir energy
and reservoir repressurising
1
scheme with gas or water . It
involves injection of fluids
into a reservoir to recover
more oil. The injected fluids
interact with the reservoir
rock/oil system, creating
more favourable conditions
to displace or push the oil
towards producer wells. The
results of the interaction
might be in terms of oil swelling,
viscosity reduction, lowering of
interfacial tension, wettability modification, or favourable mobility ratio
between the displacing and the
displaced fluid.

15 20% over primary recovery.

A schematic diagram of this nature is
shown in Figure 1.
The fluid injection after this
secondary recovery is referred to
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), or
traditionally
being
referred to tertiary
recovery as illustrated
in Figure 2. Obviously,
economics always play
the major role in go no go decisions for
EOR projects as they
involve
substantial
amount of investment.
A cursory examination
with the technical
criteria is helpful to
rule out the less-likely
candidates before any
expensive
reservoir
description and economic evaluations are
done.
Figure 2: Oil production

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Figure 3: Displacement efficiency

Left pore displacement (microscopic)
Centre & right aeal and vertical displacement (macroscopic)

To understand EOR better, it is

essential to understand the concept
of fluid displacement. The overall
displacement or recovery efficiency is
the product of microscopic and
macroscopic displacement efficiencies
as illustrated in Figure 3.
The microscopic (pore scale) displacement efficiency is a measure of how
well the displacing fluid mobilised
residual oil in pore space once the fluid
contacted the oil droplets within the
reservoir rock. Pore space is the void
area in between the reservoir rock
grains. Normally, oil and water
droplets are found within the pore
space. In parts of the reservoir, which
have been swept, some oil remains
trapped. The trapped oil is known as
residual oil, which can range between
10% to 40% in saturation, depending on
pore space sizes, rock wettability and
capillary pressure.
On the contrary, the macroscopic
(volumetric) displacement efficiency is a
measure of how well the displacing
fluid sweep the oil-bearing parts of the
reservoir, areal and vertical. The bulk
volume is huge, thus the name
macroscopic or volumetric.
The recovery efficiency can be
represented in equation form:
RE = De * As * Vs
Where RE = overall recovery efficiency
De = microscopic displacement
efficiency
As = areal sweep efficiency
Vs = vertical sweep efficiency

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Figure 4: Chemical flooding using alkaline/surfactant/polymer

(Source: NIPER EOR Information, 1986)

All the efficiencies are stated in

fractions with values between 0 to 1.
Thus, the closer De, As and Vs values to
1.0, the more efficient the displacement
process. For instance:
If De = 0.9, As = 0.7 and Vs = 0.8,
then RE = 0.9 * 0.7 * 0.8 = 0.5

PROCESSES
EOR processes can be classified into four
main categories:
1. Chemical EOR
Chemical EOR or chemical flooding processes are injection of liquid chemicals
into the reservoir to reduce interfacial
tension (IFT) between oil/rock and
stabilise flood front. Chemicals such as
surfactants (surface active agents),
alkaline and polymers are normally used
for this purpose. Soaps and detergents

are examples of surfactants/alkaline.

The chemical flooding processes, as
illustrated in Figure 4, can be further
subdivided into four systems:
a) Polymer assisted/augmented water
flooding
b) Alkaline-polymer water flooding
c) Surfactant-polymer or micellar polymer
water flooding
d) Alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) water
flooding
Basically, in each system, each
chemical has its own function. Alkaline
pre-conditioned the flooding by
controlling pH of the injected water,
surfactant reduces oil-rock IFT, while
polymer improves reservoir contact and
flood efficiency.

2. Miscible gas EOR

In miscible gas EOR or flooding, displacing
fluids in the form
of gas (hydrocarbon gases, carbon dioxide, nitrogen or flue gas)
are injected to mix
with oil to form a
single phase. By
minimising
the
IFT (IFT = 0 in
single-phase fluid),
residual oil saturation will be
lowered
while
microscopic
displacement efficiency (De) is
Figure 5: Miscible gas flooding (water-alternating-gas or WAG mode)
maximised.
(Source: NIPER EOR Information, 1986)

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Figure 6: Hot water/steam flooding

Figure 7: Microbial EOR processes

(Source: NIPER EOR Information, 1986)

The carbon dioxide gas (CO2) miscible process is an example. Through

multiple contact between CO2 and oil,
CO2 rich phase will reach a composition
that is miscible with oil. However, in
most cases, CO2 is very mobile (low
viscosity) at injection condition. Oil and
water are displaced by CO2, which leads
to fingering through oil phase and poor
sweep efficiency. An approach to
overcome this difficulty is to inject slugs
of CO2 and water alternately. This
method is called water-alternating-gas or
WAG process (refer Figure 5). Water helps
to stabilise the flood front, reduce CO2
Table 1 : 2002 Worldwide EOR Survey
(Source: OGJ Apr 2002) )

EOR Projects
Survey by
Process
Thermal
Chemical
Gas (all types)
Microbial
Total Projects

Region/Country

3. Thermal EOR
Thermal EOR processes are those in
which heat is added into the reservoir.
Additional heat will result in thermal
expansion and viscosity reduction of oil,
using these techniques:
a) In-situ combustion ignition of a
mixture of oxygen-rich hydrocarbon
gas in the reservoir.
b) Hot water / steam flooding - injection of
hot water or steam into
reservoir (Figure 6)

Worldwide
Total
U.S.A. Canada Rest of
World
65
16
77
158
4

22
26
78
31
17
126

3
3
147
47
119
313

Figure 8: 2002 Worldwide EOR Production

(Source: OGJ APR 2002)

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fingering and improve overall sweep

efficiency. Other methods of mobility
control are being tested, such as using
foam and polymer with CO2.

JURUTERA, February 2006

4. Microbial EOR
Microbial EOR processes involve
injection of microbes into a
reservoir or injection of
nutrients to stimulate growth
of indigenous microbes in the
reservoir. The microbes colonise the reservoir rock pore
throat and produce various byproducts such as gas, acids,
biomass
and
biochemical
(surfactants, polymer, and
solvents) to further improve
reservoir conditions for oil
recovery, as illustrated in
Figure 7. This technique is still
highly experimental compared
to the previously mentioned
techniques.
Gases such as carbon
dioxide, hydrogen and methane,
subsequently
increase
the
pressure and expels oil from

micro traps in oil reservoir. Biomass

works by selective plugging, which is
plugging wider pore throat and helps to
divert displacement fluids into oil
microtraps, resulting in less bypass oil
and lower residual oil saturation. Biopolymer improves sweep efficiency
while
biosurfactant
reduces
the
interfacial tensions between oil and
water. Biosolvent thins the oil by
lowering its viscosity.

CLOSURE
Is EOR necessary?
There are four main reasons why EOR is
necessary for mature oil fields.
Unsustainable production more often
production rate is difficult to maintain as
field matures.
Low reserve replenishment ratio
cumulative production is more than
reserve replenishment.
Low recovery from existing fields.
Smaller discoveries new
discoveries tend to be smaller
than existing fields.
EOR Application around the World
EOR have been applied globally as
shown in Table 1 and Figure 8. North
America (United States of America and
Canada) have the most numbers of EOR
application
and
highest
EOR
production. The reason is because their
have faced declining reserve since
1970s. EOR was applied as an
alternative method to sustain their oil
production. Gas and thermal flooding
are the most applied process there.
Other countries have followed in EOR
application or R&D ever since.

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All EOR processes have been applied

successfully in other parts of the world,
meaning that it is a proven technology.
However, almost all of EOR projects are
for onshore fields application. In
Malaysia, all our fields are located
offshore. There are challenges to EOR
application such as large well spacing
(distance in between wells), limited space
at
surface
(offshore
platforms),
complicated reservoir geology, and
higher EOR cost compared to land
operations. A comprehensive and
detailed feasibility study is required
before embarking on EOR technology for
any particular field or reservoir.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author wishes to thank Dr Nasir bin
Hj. Darman, Principal EOR Engineer
(Petroleum
Management
Unit,

PETRONAS), En. Jamil Jelani, Senior

Manager, Petroleum Engineering Group
(PRSS), Hj. Mohd. Ismail bin Omar,
Principal Reservoir Engineer, (PRSS),
peer members and colleagues from
Petroleum Engineering Group, and
Management of PETRONAS Research &
Scientific Services and for their assistance
and support in preparing this article.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

D.W. Green and G.P. Willhite

(1998). Enhanced Oil Recovery
Society of Petroleum Engineers,
Richardson, Texas.
B.C. Craft and M.F. Hawkins,
revised by R.E. Terry (1991).
"Applied Petroleum Reservoir
Engineering", 2nd edition,
Prentice-Hall Inc., New Jersey.

[3]

"Introduction to Oil & Gas

Production",
American
Petroleum Institute (1983),
Production Department, Dallas,
Texas.

[4]

"Enhanced
Oil
Recovery",
National Institute for Petroleum
and Energy Research (1986),
Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

[5]

"2002 Worldwide EOR Survey",

Oil & Gas Journal (Apr 2002),
71-83.

[6]

D.M. Updegraff (1990). "Early

Research on Microbial Enhanced
Oil Recovery", Development in
Industrial Microbiology, 31: 135
142.

JURUTERA, January 2006

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