As mentioned in my previous article last December, “Surfing The Next EOR Wave”, as oil prices rise, there is an increased interest in EOR processes. At Darcy we also addressed this a year ago in the forum “Unconventional EOR: Getting the 2X EUR Prize OUT!”, where we discussed how Gas EOR Technology can be successfully used to improve the recovery factor, but several pain points to this approach were raised, the biggest ones being the upfront cost requirement for expensive compression equipment and the energy expenses needed to build up the reservoir pressures to an effective level. Therefore, on our next Subsurface Forum of April 13, we are going to present a novel, yet simple Hybrid EOR Process that eliminates the wellhead compression requirements, becoming a more cost-effective approach by including a combination of Gas, Water as well as Chemical EOR Processes.

Enhanced Oil versus Tertiary Recovery:

A basic classification of Recovery Processes is presented in the following Framework, where alternatives to more classical EOR processes are highlighted in the orange box. (The recovery factors to the left, also in orange, almost double from phase to phase but the absolute value could vary according to the type of the reservoir)

Usually, EOR is automatically associated with being an expensive tertiary process, that is implemented after less costly primary and secondary recovery phases have been applied but doing EOR after these phases is not necessarily better than doing it directly from scratch. This has more to do with the long lead times required to prove certain technology works on the field than with a conscious decision of delaying it's implementation on the Field Development Plan (FDP).

EOR Technology Maturity:

Another point is the Technology Readiness Level for the potential processes applicable in the field. The more mature ones that have already been deployed elsewhere, for example, Thermal and Gas processes such as Steam injection or Miscible Gas, are well known in the industry and regularly brought up early on in a FDP if appropriate. More emerging technologies such as Chemical ASP require more lab tests and lengthy field trials to demonstrate their effectiveness.

Hybrid & Alternative EOR:

On the other end, more embryonic EOR technologies or a combination of the above still need to be ideated, discovered, screened, and prioritized for development.

The combinatorial potential of these processes brings a plethora of opportunities for cross-over innovation and optimization, for example, as highlighted in the following image. Darcy has recently done some scouting for an operator interested in alternatives of EOR technology for Heavy Oil. This includes Electrical EOR, Downhole Heaters, acoustic EOR, and other combinations:

Alternative EOR Technology Framework (individual Innovators can be accessed through the link)

Some of these, like Hydroacoustics, or Acceleware, are in the sweet spot for Darcy with some deployments done or with field pilots in progress.

Last but not least, regardless of which type of reservoir, as alternatives continue to emerge, the original challenges with EOR are both narrowing down the best solution for your field and having the strategic decision, time and money to implement it.

As an example of this, in our following Subsurface Forum, EOR ETC, is going to show how their Hybrid EOR Process can help reduce the time of implementation from several years to months as well as Capex and Opex costs. Then the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) from the University of North Dakota will show how they've helped to understand the subsurface complexity and reservoir response, then finally, Liberty Resources will comment how they've decided to try this new approach and share their experience with their deployment.

• Can you, or your organization share the results of some novel deployments as well?
• Would screening technologies help you narrow down what's best for your fields?
• Do you need ways to identify analog reservoirs that have deployed a specific solution?

If you think EOR topics are important and you would like Darcy to follow up on them, please like, share, or comment below, this will help us focus our research in the future!