DOE to fund eight EOR research projects

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded partial funding for eight research projects that will seek to develop technologies to improve secondary recovery. DOE said many U.S. oil fields are in danger of being abandoned even though they retain half to two thirds of their original oil in place. "The high capital cost of drilling wells and the difficulty in restoring production leases make it unlikely that abandoned fields will ever be reopened, even if future oil prices increase sharply.

July 6, 1998

3 min read

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded partial funding for eight research projects that will seek to develop technologies to improve secondary recovery.

DOE said many U.S. oil fields are in danger of being abandoned even though they retain half to two thirds of their original oil in place.

"The high capital cost of drilling wells and the difficulty in restoring production leases make it unlikely that abandoned fields will ever be reopened, even if future oil prices increase sharply. Premature abandonment, in effect, permanently cuts off access to valuable oil assets," it said.

Seven of the projects will seek to develop better ways to flood an oil-bearing formation with gas, chemicals, or microbes to move oil through the reservoir rock to producing wells. The eighth will develop improved computer-generated models of these advanced recovery methods.

Projects detailed

The University of Utah at Salt Lake City will seek ways to prevent the chemical properties of the oil in Chevron Production Co.'s Rangely field in Colorado from breaking down during carbon dioxide flooding. The breakdown results in an asphalt-like substance that clogs the reservoir and the production equipment.

The University of Pittsburgh will focus on improving control of the gas flooding process by increasing CO₂ viscosity to a level comparable to the oil being displaced.

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology's Petroleum Recovery Research Center, Socorro, N.M., will look for ways to optimize control of chemical gels in fractured reservoirs to reduce salt water production during oil field operations.

The University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg plans research on developing a new class of "smart" copolymers to control fluid movement during chemical flooding.

Columbia University in New York City will seek to design surfactant flooding methods that can increase oil production by reducing the tendency of surfactants to cling to reservoir rocks.

The University of Oklahoma at Norman will develop microbial strains that can consistently produce high levels of biosurfactants under simulated reservoir conditions and to develop biosurfactants with improved properties that can be used under a wider range of conditions.

BDM Petroleum Technologies, Bartlesville, Okla., plans research on a combined microbial-surfactant, polymer-surfactant system for improved oil recovery.

The University of Texas at Austin will work to extend the capability of an existing mainframe or supercomputer simulator to model advanced oil recovery methods that use surfactants, polymers, gels, alkaline chemicals, microorganisms, and foam as well as combinations of those.

The eight projects were the result of a DOE solicitation in April 1997. Each will take about 36 months. Total cost is $7,433,912, and DOE will fund $5,708,144, or 77%. The National Petroleum Technology Office, Tulsa, will oversee the projects.