[...]... other hand, reservoir development plans for heavy and extraheavy crude oil reservoirs, including oil sands, generally differ from those of medium and light crude oil reservoirs Given the viscosity of heavy oils at reservoir conditions, oil might not flow naturally This is the case of Canadian oil sands and some tar sands in other areas of the world (viscosities on the order of 106 cp) In oil sands,... abhor This page intentionally left blank C H A P T E R 2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Concepts O U T L I N E 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 What Is Enhanced Oil Recovery? 8 2.3 Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods 11 2.1 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we examine some of the principles of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods and highlight some of the most important market and technical drivers for EOR Before we can discuss decision... Facilities and Production Operation (optimization) Geologic Model 2ary Recovery / Pressure Maintenance 3ary Recovery (EOR) Abandonment / Decommissioning / CO2 storage? 1ary Recovery Natural Depletion Time FIGURE 1.1 The main phases of a field development plan Enhanced Oil Recovery DOI: 10.1016/B978-1-85617-855-6.00007-3 1 # 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved 2 1 RESERVOIR DEVELOPMENT PLANS Development strategies. .. Bibars and Hanafy, 2004; Cosentino, 2001; Dudfield, 1988; Fabel et al., 1999; Figueiredo et al., 2007; Gael et al., 1995; Satter and Thakur, 1994; Schiozer and Mezzomo, 2003; Stripe et al., 1993) This book provides a general overview of reservoir development planning to set the context for evaluating and implementing enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects In other words, reservoir development planning. .. 2.2 WHAT IS ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY? 9 • The Wyoming Geological Association (WGA) field guidebooks and symposiums (Wyoming Geological Association Publications, 1946–2000) • The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) production database (The Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission, 2008a and 2008b) • The database of crude oil analyses performed by the National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research... water and/ or gas), and oil recovery and risk, among other considerations Therefore, integrating the information from simulation studies helps to address the multiple and complex factors that influence oil recovery, as well as reservoir development decisions As new information about the reservoir, its geology, and its degree of heterogeneity becomes available through drilling of new wells (i.e., development. .. primary and secondary methods (water- and gasfloods) are uneconomic.” 2 Primary oil recovery is “the amount of the reserves recovered by primary production—that is, without injected fluid pressure support.” 3 Secondary oil recovery is “a recovery improvement process such as waterflooding or gasflooding.” 4 Enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, is “one or more of a variety of processes that seek to improve the recovery. .. processes to further augment oil recovery beyond secondary recovery (by waterflooding or natural gas injection) in a reservoir Enhanced oil recovery processes include all methods that use external sources of energy and/ or materials to recover oil that cannot be produced economically by conventional means Thomas (2008) refers to both IOR and EOR as follows: 1 Improved oil recovery, or IOR, “is a general... EOR, and this creates a superset of strategies and technologies for oil production that are superior to traditional methods— namely, water flooding and gas flooding You should also keep in mind that IOR/EOR has several drivers From the point of view of reservoir engineers and others, gains in reserves (or recovery factors) and/ or productivity can guide decisions in both EOR and IOR On the other hand,... et al., 2002; Clark and Ludolph, 2003) • Problems with sand production and wellbore collapse and stability (Bellarby, 2009; Civan, 2007; Nouri et al., 2003; Tovar et al., 1999) Enhanced oil recovery chemical methods such as alkali-surfactantpolymer (ASP) have gained considerable interest in recent years as these methods have matured and become commercial options to increasing oil recovery in mature . (Vladimir) Enhanced oil recovery : field planning and development strategies — V. Alvarado and E. Manrique p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-85617-855-6 1. Enhanced oil recovery. . of reservoir development planning to set the context for evaluating and implementing enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects. In other words, reservoir development planning refers to strategies that begin.