| Increased oil recovery technologies could help meet demand for the next 25 years
Posted: 04 June 2007
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With global demand for energy rising fast, the oil and gas industry is increasingly turning to technology to maximise production from oil fields.
“While alternative energy forms and non-conventional hydrocarbons such as heavy oil, tar sands and oil shales may go some way to meeting demand over the coming decades, the world will continue to rely on conventional oil for much its energy needs,” according to Dr. Andrew Brayshaw, Director of Technology, BP Middle East & South Asia.
We know there are significant reserves still out there that can help meet this rising demand. This will be more difficult oil than in the past, but thanks to significant advances in oilfield technology we are increasingly able to optimise production from mature oilfields.”
Typical recovery factors – that is how much of the oil in a reservoir can be extracted - currently stand at 35%. This can be increased to over 65% through the use of innovative technologies and Increased Oil Recovery techniques.
Speaking to industry specialists at the Improved Oil Recovery Middle East Conference held recently in Abu Dhabi , BP Senior Advisor for Increased Oil Recovery Cliff Black explained how BP has developed a range of proprietary industry leading technologies that have allowed it to increase recovery factors throughout its global network of operations.
“BP has significantly increased recovery factors from its fields around the world through the application of leading edge technologies and field management processes. One example is BP’s Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska which, given it’s characteristics, would normally yield a ‘standard’ recovery of less than 40%, whereas in reality the field is set to recover around 65% of in-place reserves,” Black explained.
One such technology that BP has developed over the past decade and deployed in the field is Improved Waterflood Recovery. With Waterflooding, water is injected into the reservoir to “sweep” out any residual oil. BP’s Enhanced Waterflooding Technology significantly improves sweep efficiency, allowing for greater amounts of oil to be displaced and ultimately extracted.
BP is also pioneering the research and development into methods for the capture and storage of carbon dioxide in combination with enhanced oil recovery. “Removing carbon dioxide from produced natural gas and reinjecting it into oil reservoirs results in the double benefit of reducing pollution and maximising recovery from producing fields,” explained Tony Espie, BP Senior Advisor for Carbon Capture and Storage.
The world’s first industrial scale carbon capture project is being lead by BP at In Salah in Algeria, where the removal of carbon dioxide from extracted natural gas currently amounts to taking 200,000 cars off the road. The carbon dioxide is reinjected into a sandstone reservoir where it is permanently stored. |
