Enhanced Oil Recovery Conference for sustaining world oil reserves to be held in Abu Dhabi

With sparse natural resources, the importance of EOR - Enhanced Oil Recovery has gained significance for its advanced, speculative techniques which have resulted in up to 60% increase in extraction as compared to 20-40% results using the primary and secondary recovery techniques.

Enhanced Oil Recovery will unlock the true potential of oil reserves. Enhanced Oil Recovery(EOR) is a power-driven technique that has gained prominence in the oil and gas sector allowing increase in the amount of crude oil being extracted from an oil field.

The potential of EOR is at its highest in the Middle East with roughly 1000 bn barrels or about 20% of undeveloped heavy and extra-heavy oil reserves existing in the region. Companies are embarking on EOR programs by diversifying to newer techniques while perfecting the current methods. Due to factors like government support and influx of new technology and increased investment, EOR is turning out to be the most sought-after techniques. According to an SBI reports publication in 2010 (April), the oil production in Oman had increased by 17% after the implementation of EOR in 2009.

The recent developments in EOR techniques bring forth the need for providing a global platform focused on the future growth in the oil and gas sector.

Fleming Gulf is organizing the 2nd Annual Enhanced Oil Recovery & Heavy Oil Conference in Abu Dhabi on 27th and 28th March 2013 aimed at bridging the gap between the latest EOR techniques and traditional recovery methods in a 2-day interactive session amidst the best brains, speakers and panelists in the oil and gas sector.

In an exclusive interview over the different challenges in the industry, the marketing team at Fleming Gulf Conferences interviewed Stijn Santen, Director of CO2-Net B.V. who will be speaking at the event on 'Strategic, financial and political considerations for EOR'. This article highlights the excerpts from this interview with him.

Shedding light on the importance of EOR, he said, "When the global economy will enter a phase of higher economic growth again, much more oil production will be needed. However, the development of new large oil discoveries is very costly and time consuming. EOR at mature and new fields is a relatively low risk and undervalued methodology to increase oil production on a shorter timescale. This is especially true for heavy oil EOR where there are large reserves available."

On the challenges of successful implementation of EOR, Mr. Santen addressed the challenges that need to be tackled:

* The knowledge gap: EOR was being applied in the seventies of the last century during the period of high oil prices. During the eighties and nineties, oil prices were low and both the projects and operations were canceled. This expertise needs to be revived via recruitment and training.

* A high upfront investment is required for significant enhanced oil production over a long period of time to gain sufficient return on invested capital (this is especially a challenge in the North sea with high offshore costs and a high tax regime).

* A large continuous supply is needed for injection fluids ( be it steam, CO2, chemicals etc.) & there is a need for long term contractual agreements with suppliers.

* The risk perception and capital allocation of exploration versus EOR.

* Detailed reservoir expertise is needed for proper injection especially in heterogeneous reservoir.

He further states that the challenges can be overcome via systematic planning by:

* Training and education.

* Implementation of novel technologies that enable EOR with lower costs and risks like horizontal drilling, dynamic reservoir simulation etc.

* Presenting a novel perspective for oil and gas companies on oil reserves, oil production, EOR versus exploration and return on investment.

He closed the interview by saying, "The participants will benefit from this event by sharing knowledge and experiences while being updated by experts on the new developments relevant to their job. New insights provided by the Summit might enable the attendees to bring forth the business case of EOR in their field using a novel perspective."

EOR holds the key to unlocking the real potential of oil reserves. Be a part of the conference to learn about the latest practices and implement them in your organizations.