Most of the oil and gas fields have remaining reserves that can only be extracted by putting energy into the reservoir, as well as by changing some of the rock and fluid dynamic properties. In the context of lower oil prices, the production cost of the additional barrels must be controlled through careful EOR methods implementation design, and meet strict economic criteria on the cost of the additional barrel produced through EOR.

Planning EOR – from prefeasibility to pilot implementation

An EOR project has to follow the necessary steps to be validated through a successful pilot. Only then can additional reserves be booked.

The usual steps can be summarized as follow:

• Prefeasibility through screening, analogue search and reservoir simulations
• Specific laboratory feasibilities (vapor injection tests, PVT, chemical formulation and core floods)
• Reservoir Engineering feasibility through detailed simulation of the EOR process accounting for lab results, economy and conceptual facility design
• Pilot design, implementation and monitoring, including FEED and performance criteria for success
• Full field extension