Fortune Oil and Gas Willis Texas Offers The Story Enhanced Oil Recovery

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History of Enhanced Oil Recovery by: Jim Knight

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) details a set of techniques useful to amplify the level of oil which can be extracted from virtually any oil field. Numerous oil exploration and drilling companies are employing EOR strategies to maximize the potential of oil fields both old and new. As our nation's search for energy independence intensifies, the application of EOR techniques will grow into a far more commonplace practice for getting all the oil out of the ground as you can.

The United States, and Texas especially, is littered with oil fields which have been drilled, had oil extracted, and then been abandoned not having the field's full potential being realized. By the 1990s, when the oil industry ground to a virtual stop , seasoned oilmen noticed the significant level of potential in shifting their focus away from exploring new fields and towards removing additional oil from fields that had already been drilled. An example of the strength of EOR techniques is the Salt Creek oil field in Wyoming.

In 1978, the Salt Creek field seemed to be producing 6.3 million barrels of oil per year. The amount had dropped to 1.7 million by 2004. Not only had Wyoming's statewide oil production been dragged down in the process , drastically impacting the state's economy, even so the Salt Creek field was expected to be dry by 2020. Enter Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, who applied an EOR technique termed gas injection to bring back the Salt Creek field and almost single-handedly reverse the entire state's decline in production.
Not only has Anadarko help to improve Wyoming's economy, it has found a handsomely rewarding investment for itself. Anadarko actually viewed the project as profitable when oil prices ranged in the $20 amount per barrel. In July of 2005 oil prices had risen to between $50 and $60 per barrel. In the short time since then, prices have more than doubled. This rise in roi is a major part of the reason why oil companies like Anadarko are able to afford the upfront capital expenditures essential to utilize EOR. - Fortune Oil Willis Texas

Although many Americans and the economy have been hit hard by soaring fuel costs, one ancillary benefit of the increase in oil prices has been the extra incentive for oil companies to invest in the development of EOR technology. Quite a few smaller sized independent oil exploration and oil production management companies are working on effective application of the modern innovations in Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques. These companies are joined by none other than the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which recently announced the introduction of an EOR program to "enabl e enhanced recovery of the nation's stranded oil resources".

One dilemma whenever oil drilling and carbon dioxide end up being the topic is the potential impact expected on the environment. There is reason to believe that the impact could be quite positive, based on a recent analysis conducted by the International Resources Group (IRG) studying the effect of climate legislation on the supply of carbon dioxide for EOR. Due to the growing profitability of carbon injection EOR, climate legislation such as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act will, in effect , spur companies to develop more advanced technologies for efficient carbon usage ; one example being carbon capture systems. Such policies, which essentially incentivize the capture of industrial carbon dioxide, can serve two purposes: 1) assist the U.S. in recovering untapped oil reserves; and 2) reduce global warming pollution .

There is little doubt that Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques will pay tremendous dividends for the U.S. in the long-term. The DOE estimates that an additional 240 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources could potentially be generated with full usage of "next generation" carbon dioxide injection EOR. Estimates place the amount of oil still in the ground in the U.S. alone at more than 1 trillion barrels. There really is no telling how much more of that oil will become recoverable as Enhanced Oil Recovery technology continues to evolve.
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