Publications

Enhanced oil recovery is defined as oil recovery by processes which increase displacement efficiency over that obtained through primary and/or secondary recovery processes. Some of these processes function best when applied directly after primary production, while others can be applied after secondary production. According to the Oil and Gas Journal, the proved world recoverable reserves by present technology are 648billion bbl of oil. Enhanced oil recovery should recover an additional 200 to 400 billion bbl of oil. This is a potential 31 to 61% increase in current world oil reserves! Such an increase is as large as the contribution estimated to come from future exploration efforts. Because of this potential, a number of EOR projects, both pilot and fieldwide, are underway throughout the world. Many other projects are in the design and planning stages with initiation slated for the early 1980’s.