Abstract:
Terms of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) have been taken as synonyms of each other and used interchangeably in oil and gas industry literature. Recently it has been proposed in industry that these two terms refer to two important but significantly different aspects of an oil reservoir development project. Therefore, to avoid ambiguity and convey proper essence of the terms, these should be differentiated and specifically defined by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Both these processes, EOR and IOR, are aimed at economically maximizing hydrocarbon recovery from subsurface reservoirs. The term “improved oil recovery” refers to incremental recovery that is possible with application of present techniques and technology, and is a continuous process during all stages of field. While enhanced oil recovery pertains to recovery due to changes in rock/fluid system of reservoir as a result of fluids injected in the reservoir and relates to particular stage of an oil field development. Application of IOR practices and EOR techniques is influenced by economics of the project, which in turn is dependent on the size of the reserve. An agreed baseline is required to define IOR term and quantify additional oil which will be recovered through IOR techniques. This paper examines EOR and IOR terms, in light of the reserves classifications as suggested by SPE and WPC. Suggestions based on SPE definitions of proved reserves, both developed and undeveloped, are put forwarded to be considered while establishing baseline for IOR definition.
Page(s):
289-294
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Proceedings SPE-PAPG Annual Technical Conference, Volume: 0, Issue: , Year: 2009