Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics

Lesson 2.5 – Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques

Learning Objectives

At the end of this lesson, students will…

Explain the concept and objectives of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)
Be to classify/distinguish the EOR processes
Explain the EOR design and screening considerations
Compare the production enhancement potential of EOR applications
Recognize EOR production vs. cost statistics

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Enhanced Oil Recovery
Upon completing this lesson, students will be able to:
Determine the mechanisms that cause the oil to be trapped in the
reservoir to explain the concept, necessity, and realistic expectations from
EOR
Define reserves and resources and their relation to engineering
intervention (EOR)
Determine the similarities and differences of EOR Methods versus well
stimulation
Explain the EOR design and screening considerations (assumptions,
limitations, drivers, challenges)
Discuss screening considerations (based on reservoir and fluid
properties) to select an EOR method
Classify the EOR methods and their main mechanisms (chemical,
miscible, thermal)
Compare the production enhancement potential of EOR applications
Recognize EOR production vs. cost statistics

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Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes
All methods that use external sources of energy and/or materials to
recover oil that cannot be economically produced by conventional
means (natural flow, artificial lift);
Carcoana (1992) describes the intent of EOR methods as follows:
To improve sweep efficiency by reducing the mobility ratio between
injected and in-place fluids
To eliminate or reduce capillary and interfacial forces and thus
improve displacement efficiency
To act on both phenomena simultaneously

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Enhanced Oil Recovery
How much oil do primary and secondary recovery methods usually
extract?
Only about 35% of the OOIP
What is EOR?
In a broad sense, is any method that increases oil or gas production
by using techniques or materials that are not part of normal pressure
maintenance or water flooding operations. Often confused with.
Infill drilling (just accelerate production)
Well stimulation (localized treatement near wellbore)

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Enhanced Oil Recovery

What is the first step in the design and implementation of an EOR

process?
Determine the mechanisms that cause the oil to be trapped in the
reservoir
What limits the implementation of EOR?
Technical complexity of EOR implementation and economics limit
many technically viable ideas
What other considerations are important for the EOR implementation?
EOR techniques require extreme attention to environmental impacts
as the generation of heat, treatment of the injected fluids and
chemicals, and the handling of the evolved gases may dictate
operational and additional economic limitations

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Methods to Improve Recovery Efficiency

In this course we focus on Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods (basic and

general aspects)

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A more detailed structure…
Depending on the producing life of a
reservoir, oil recovery can be divided
in three phases: primary, secondary,
and tertiary
Nanotechnology
Which is the use of nanoparticles to
increase oil recovery

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EOR Drivers: Reserves, Environment and Economics

What are reserves?

Quantities of hydrocarbons from known accumulations available for
production and quantities which are anticipated to become available
within a practical time frame through additional field development,
technological advances, or exploration

Source January 1996 issue of the SPE Journal of Petroleum Technology and in the
June 1996 issue of the WPC (World Petroleum Congresses) Newsletter

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SPE Oil & Gas Reserves and Resources Definitions

The abbreviations 1C,

2C and 3C relate to
𝟗𝟎% 𝟓𝟎% 𝟏𝟎% corresponding
petroleum volumes for
Contingent Resources

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Facts to know about Reserves

Petroleum reserves definitions are not static and will be revised as

additional geologic or engineering data become available or as
economic conditions change;
Reserves may be attributed to either natural energy or improved
recovery methods;

What about Rovuma Basin discoveries today? Are they still reserves?

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Water flooding… precursor of EOR

…………. Water Separation &

Water
Waterflooding is the most widely injection
Injection
pump
Storage Facilities Production well

used secondary mean of oil

recovery
Water is injected from injection
wells to maintain the reservoir
pressure and displace the oil
toward the production wells

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Water flooding Highlights
Description
Water flood consists of injecting water into the reservoir. Water is injected in
patterns or along the periphery of the reservoir
Mechanisms of Oil Recovery
Water drive
Reservoir Pressure Maintenance
Limitations
High oil viscosities result in high mobility ratios
Some heterogeneity is acceptable, but avoid extensive fractures
Challenges
Poor compatibility between the injection water and the reservoir may cause
formation damage
Subsurface fluid control to divert injected water and to shut off undesirable
produced fluids
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Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods

Descriptions
Recovery of hydrocarbons by injection of anything not originally
present in the reservoir...
Include a variety of methods:
Thermal Recovery methods
Chemical EOR
Miscible displacement
Others (nanotechnology, microbial, etc.)

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Thermal Recovery (Waterflooding at high T)

Description
Thermal recovery methods consist of injecting hot fluid (hot water or
steam) or in-situ combustion (burning a part of the crude oil in place)
Thermal recovery gives the highest recovery at the lowest cost, about
60% of oil in place
Mechanisms That Improve Oil Recovery
The heat reduces the viscosity of crude oil and improve its mobility
Vaporization of lighter components of oil
Thermal expansion
Supplies pressure to drive oil to the producing well

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Thermal Recovery

Disadvantage
The generation of large amounts of heat and the treatment of evolved
gas has large environmental implications
Limitations
Applicable to viscous oil, high permeability sandstones or
unconsolidated sands
Oil saturations must be high. And pay zones should be >20 ft thick to
minimize heat loss to the adjacent formations

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Classification of Thermal Recovery Methods

Thermal EOR techniques can be categorized into

Steam injection
Cyclic-steam injection (huff and puff)
Hot water injection
In-situ combustion
Microwave heating

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Steam Injection

Consists of a continuous
injection of high-temperature
steam in a reservoir;
As the steam loses heat to the
formation, it condenses into
hot water & with the help of
continuous supply of steam
behind it provides the drive to
move the oil to production
well;

https://pet-oil.blogspot.com/2012/03/enhanced-oil-recovery-thermal-
recovery.html

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Steam Injection

Steam injection causes the following effects that improve the mobility of
the fluids:
Distillation of oil
Reduction of oil viscosity
Expansion of reservoir fluids
Change of wettability

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Steam Injection
Unfavorable conditions for Steam injection:
Deep formations (low steam quality reaching formation→ large heat
losses to unwanted areas)
Thin pay-zones (heat losses to adjacent formations)
Low permeability formations (injectivity problems)
Heterogeneity (early breakthrough and reduced sweep)
Environmentally sensitive locations (e.g., permafrost)
Limited spaces (e.g., offshore platforms)
Carbonate formations
Presence of water-sensitive clays
Unfavorable economics (cost per bbl of incremental oil is high; as much
as 1/3 of the incremental oil is used in heat generation)

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Cyclic - Steam Injection (Huff and Puff)

Steam is injected into producing

wells, then shut in to allow the
steam to heat or "soak" the
producing formation around the
well…
After a sufficient time of
heating, and the wells are put
back in production.

Enhanced Oil Recovery ( THERMAL RECOVERY ) |petroleum (pet-

oil.blogspot.com)
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In-Situ Combustion or Fireflooding

In fireflood, 1st the formation

oil is ignited, and by continued
injection of air, a fire front is
pushed through the reservoir
Generation of heat in the
reservoir prevents heat losses
in the wellbore
Heat thins the oil and makes it
flow more easily

https://pet-oil.blogspot.com/2012/03/enhanced-oil-recovery-
thermal-recovery.html

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Chemical Flooding EOR Methods

Injection of chemicals that can boost the efficiency of water flooding

More appropriate for depleted and flooded formations with scattered
and irregular oil saturation
Suitable for low viscosity oil (< 10 cp)
In low permeability carbonates, low salinity water is required
Not a very common procedure. There are very few active chemical
floods today
More Common Chemical Flooding Methods
Surfactant flooding
Alkaline flooding
Polymer flooding
ASP (alkaline + surfactant + polymer)

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Chemical Flooding EOR Methods

Basic Mechanisms
Reduction in interfacial tension between oil and brine
Solubilisation of released oil
Change in the wettability towards more water wet
Reducing mobility contrast between crude oil and displacing fluid
Important variables for the selection of chemical EOR processes
Type of reservoir (tight?)
Rock mineralogy, clay, heterogeneity
Pay thickness, permeability, porosity
Reservoir temperature
Oil properties
Salinity of formation water and presence of bivalent cations
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Polymer Flooding

What is polymer?
Polymer is a large molecule composed of monomers (ex. polyacrylamide is
a non-toxic long-chain molecule)
When mixed with water, polymer makes the water more viscous (like a gel)
Even at low concentrations, polymers significantly increase the viscosity
and decrease the mobility of water

https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-gel-605868

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Polymer Flooding
Description
Polymer augmented water flooding consists of adding water soluble
polymers to the water before it is injected into the reservoir
Polymer flooding improve recovery efficieny by
Reducing the formation of viscous fingering and/or channels leading to
more favorable ratio (improves volumetric sweep efficiency)

(Sydansk and Romero-Zeron, 2011)

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Polymer Flooding

Polymers solution injection provides a favourable oil displacement front

Separation
Injection Injection
& storage Production
well Pump facilities well
Polymer
solution from
mixing plant

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Polymer Flooding Features
Challenges
Lower injectivity than with water can adversely affect oil production rates in
the early stages of the polymer flood
Acrylamide-type polymers loose viscosity due to shear degradation, salinity
and divalent ions
Xanthan gum polymers cost more, are subject to microbial degradation, and
have a greater potential for wellbore plugging.
Limitations
High oil viscosities require a higher polymer concentration
Results are normally better if the polymer flood is started before the
produced water-oil ratio becomes excessively high
Clays increase polymer adsorption
If fractures are present, the cross-linked or gelled polymer techniques may
be applicable
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Surfactant Flooding (including foam)

Its Capillary forces prevent oil from moving through water wet pore
channels
Surfactants have medium- to long-chain
molecules with a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic
section
They accumulate at the oil/water interface and
lower the inter-facial tension (decrease the
capillary forces) between the two phases and
increase oil recovery
Wikipidea
Surfactant flooding is an EOR process in which small amounts of
surfactants are added to water injected to sweep the reservoir oil

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Surfactant/Polymer (or SP) Flooding

Description
Surfactant/polymer flooding consists of injecting a slug that contains
water, surfactant, electrolyte (salt), usually a co-solvent (alcohol),
followed by polymer-thickened water

Mechanisms That Improve Recovery Efficiency

The use of surfactant decreases the interfacial tension (improves
displacement sweep efficiency)
Polymer increase the viscosity of displacing fluid and offers a better
mobility control (improves volumetric sweep efficiency)

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Surfactant/Polymer (or SP) Flooding

SP Injection sequence
Injection
well Water Separation & Production well
Injection Storage Facilities
Surfactant pump
Solution from
Mixing plant

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Surfactant/Polymer Flooding Highlights

Limitations
An areal sweep of more than 50% for water flood is desired
Relatively homogeneous formation. High amounts of anhydrite,
gypsum, or clays are undesirable
With commercially available surfactants, formation water chlorides
should be <20,000 ppm and divalent ions (𝑪𝒂++ and 𝑴𝒈 ++ ) <500 ppm
Challenges
Complex and expensive system
Possibility of chromatographic separation of chemicals
High adsorption of surfactant
Interactions between surfactant and polymer
Degradation of chemicals at high temperature

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Alkaline Flooding

The basis of high-𝑷𝑯 alkaline flooding is the chemical reaction of the

injected alkalis with the organic acids in the oil and the formation rock

If the oil includes the right types of organic acids, alkaline injection
generates surface-active substances in the reservoir (i.e. soap)

Similar to surfactant flooding, alkaline flooding increases oil recovery

by lowering the interfacial tension at the water/oil interface and reducing
the capillary pressure holding oil in small pore openings

Alkaline flooding is usually not as effective as surfactant flooding

because the in-situ formation of the right surface active agents is not
always warranted

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Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer (or ASP) Flooding

ASP injection sequence:

Injection
ASP: a blend of alkali, surfactant & ASP
well
Separation &
Storage Facilities Production well
polymer mobilizes trapped oil Solution
from
Polymer «push»: polymer solution Mixing plant

displaces mobilized oil to producing

well
Terminal water flood: completes the
displaciment

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Miscible Gas Injection – Air Injection

Low-Temperature oxidation reactions transform injected air into an

effective displacement agents (flue gas) composed of 𝑵𝟐 , 𝑪𝑶𝟐 and light
hydrocarbons

http://petros.ru/files/images/mun/mun-006eng.jpg

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Miscible Gas Injection – Air Injection

The advantages of the method include:

Use of air is an inexpensive agent;
Natural energy of the formation
Air injection works better in high-temperature formations where the
injected air can spontaneously oxidize the oil
The injected air is converted to flue gas (~13% CO2) in a low-
temperature reaction zone near the injector
Flue gas displacement is generally an immiscible process
Because the main recovery mechanism is the swelling of originally
under-saturated oil, air injection might not recover as much oil as a
miscible gas injection process

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Miscible Gas Injection – Nitrogen/Flue Gas Flooding

Description
Nitrogen or flue gas injection consists of injecting large amount of gas
that may be miscible or immiscible depending on the pressure and oil
composition
Separation & Production well
Water Storage Facilities
N2 Injection Injection
from pipeline pump
or recycle

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Miscible Gas Injection – Nitrogen/Flue Gas Flooding
Mechanisms that Improve Recovery Efficiency
Vaporizes the lighter components of the crude oil and generates miscibility
if the pressure is high enough
Provides a gas drive where a significant portion of the reservoir volume is
filled with low-cost gases
Limitations
Miscibility can only be achieved with light oils at high pressures; therefore,
deep reservoirs are needed
A steeply dipping reservoir is desired to permit gravity stabilization of the
displacement, which has a very unfavorable mobility ratio.
Challenges
Viscous fingering results in poor vertical and horizontal sweep efficiency
Flue gas injection can cause corrosion
Non hydrocarbon gases must be separated from saleable gas
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Miscible Gas Injection – Carbon Dioxide 𝑪𝑶𝟐 Injection

𝑪𝑶𝟐 flooding consists of injecting large quantities of 𝑪𝑶𝟐 (15% or more

hydrocarbon pore volumes) in the reservoir to form a miscible flood

Mechanism:

𝑪𝑶𝟐 extracts the light-to-intermediate

components from the oil, and, if the pressure
is high enough, develops miscibility to
displace oil from the reservoir
Viscosity reduction/oil swelling

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/modeling-co2-enhanced-oil-
recovery-eor-process-prashant-gadkari

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Miscible Gas Injection – Carbon Dioxide 𝑪𝑶𝟐 Injection

Limitations
Very low Viscosity of 𝑪𝑶𝟐 results in poor mobility control.
Availability of 𝑪𝑶𝟐
Surface Facilities
Challenges
Early breakthrough of 𝑪𝑶𝟐 causes problems
Corrosion in producing wells
The necessity of separating 𝑪𝑶𝟐 from saleable hydrocarbons. Re-
pressuring of 𝑪𝑶𝟐 for recycling
A large requirement of 𝑪𝑶𝟐 per incremental barrel produced

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Miscible Gas Flooding (Hydrocarbon Injection)

Description
Hydrocarbon gas flooding consists of injecting light hydrocarbons
through the reservoir to form a miscible flood
Mechanisms that Improve Recovery Efficiency
Viscosity reduction/oil swelling/condensing or vaporizing gas drive
Limitations
Minimum depth is set by the pressure needed to maintain the
generated miscibility. The required pressure ranges from about 1,200
psi for the LPG process to 3,000-5,000 psi for the High Pressure Gas
Drive, depending on the oil
A steeply dipping formation is very desirable permits gravity
stabilization of the displacement that normally has an unfavorable
mobility ratio.

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Miscible Gas Flooding (Hydrocarbon Injection)

Challenges
Viscous fingering results in poor vertical and horizontal sweep
efficiency
Large quantities of expensive products are required
Solvent may be trapped and not recovered

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Other Currently Popular Methods

Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Formulations
Microbial EOR
Combining different recovery methods (gas + polymer injection)
Thermal with solvents (VAPEX technique)

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Physical Effects and Potential of EOR Methods

https://www.slb.com/-/media/files/oilfield-review/eor

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Cost / Recovery Comparison for Different EOR Methods

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Screening Criteria: Depth

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Screening Criteria: Oil Viscosity

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Screening Criteria: Oil Viscosity

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Challenges for EOR Technologies

Gas EOR
Reservoir heterogeneity
Mobility control and reservoir conformance
Incomplete mixing
Lack of predictive capability
Poor injectivity
Corrosion problems with CO2

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Challenges for EOR Technologies

Surfactant Flooding
Reservoir heterogeneity
Excessive chemical loss
Coherence, stability and cost-effectiveness of surfactant slugs
Limited to reservoir salinity <20% NaCI
Limited to reservoir temperature <200°F
Limited to permeability >100 md
Polymer propagation

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Challenges for EOR Technologies

Alkaline Flooding
Limited range of applicable salinity
High chemical consumption
Brine incompatibility - precipitation

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Challenges for EOR Technologies

Alkaline Flooding
Limited range of applicable salinity
High chemical consumption
Brine incompatibility - precipitation

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Challenges for EOR Technologies

Reservoir Characterization
The complexity of the rock and fluid distributions even in the
“simplest” reservoirs
The inadequate amount of detailed information from even the most
ambitiously sampled reservoir
Scaling of properties from core or smaller scale to interwell scale
Difficulties in interpreting seismic data in terms of rock and fluid
properties

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Challenges for EOR Technologies

Thermal EOR
Lower crude oil prices due to gravity, sulfur and heavy metal content
Large front end investments and delayed responses
Absence of cost-effective technology to upgrade low-quality, low-
gravity crude into saleable products
Absence of cost effective technology that permits the use of low-
grade fuel such as coal, petroleum coke, high sulfur crude oil and
brackish water to generate steam without violating the environmental
regulations

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Credits

Developer:
Dr. Maria Barrufet, Texas A&M Petroleum Engineering
Contributors
Luis H M Lucas, Ph.D., Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Professor of
Chemical Engineering
Susanne Rothschild, Instructional Designer Sponsor
Modified by
Alberto Bila, Ph.D., P.E. Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Chemical Engineering and Petroleum
Engineering

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