Enhanced Oil Recovery Market - Global Forecast, Share, Trends, Size, Growth, and Industry Analysis, 2012 – 2018 Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a term for the techniques used for boosting oil recovery by injecting chemicals, gas, or steam to force more oil from an aged field. EOR is also called tertiary recovery or improved oil recovery. On an average, 70% to 75 % of the oil remains trapped in reservoirs because it is too difficult to extract, so by using EOR, about 30 to 60 % of the reservoir's original oil can be extracted. EOR has the capability to increase oil recovery up to 75%, although it is expensive to use in an oil field. Browse Full Report: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/enhanced-oilrecovery.html
Currently three methods of EOR are used - gas injection, thermal recovery, and miscible solvents. But all the reservoirs cannot use EOR methods for production due to the higher cost of development. So these reservoirs must be heavily evaluated to determine which type of EOR will work best on the reservoir. Thermal (Steam): A steam injection heats the oil inside the reservoir which helps it flow easily through the fractures to the production wells. Along with maximum possible oil recovery, the thermal recovery method is accompanied by high capital expenditures as well as high operating cost and is therefore risky. A steam injection into the reservoir raises recovery from 3-5% to 25-35%. The best thermal production techniques which are used currently are: steam assisted gravity drainage, cyclic steam stimulation, steam flood, and in-situ combustion. In 2011 some advanced projects started in Oman and California, which used solar energy to produce steam. It is estimated that over 50% of applied EOR in the United States is done by thermal recovery. Gas Injection: Gas injection for EOR involves injecting nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or natural gas into the reservoir among which the carbon dioxide-EOR method is gaining the most popularity. Gas injection EOR involves injecting the miscible gas into a reservoir which creates an easy flowing mixture which flows to production wells from the reservoir. Injecting gas into the fractures raises the recovery of oil from the field from 10% to 45-50%.