EOR Field Experiences in Carbonate Reservoirs in the United States

A considerable portion of the world's hydrocarbon endowment, and even more so if resources from the Middle East are excluded, are in carbonate reservoirs. Carbonate reservoirs usually exhibit low porosity and may be fractured. These two characteristics in addition to oil-to-mixed wet rock properties usually results in low recovery. When enhanced oil recovery (EOR) strategies are pursued, the injected fluids will likely flow is through the fracture network, bypassing oil in the rock matrix. The high permeability in the fracture network and its low equivalent porous volume result in early breakthrough of the injected fluids. Infill drilling programs and well conformance strategies, mostly gas and water shutoff, have been effectively used to mitigate the early breakthrough and increase oil recovery. However, in most cases, 40 to 50% of the original oil in place (OOIP) is not produced.

A large number of EOR field projects in carbonate reservoirs have been reported in the literature since the early 70's. The field projects showed the technological capability to increase oil recovery and estimated long run costs for their operation. This increase in oil recovery would directly result in additional reserves extending the productive life of the different assets. However, the technical results were not matched by their economic viability given the price environment of the time. In some cases high upfront investments created insurmountable barriers for the technology's application despite the promise of higher returns. In other cases, the high marginal costs eliminated all benefits from the increased recovery. The latter was especially true for EOR processes based on chemical and thermal methods. Over the last three decades, many improvements have reduced the cost per incremental barrel as will be seen below. Carbon dioxide flooding (continuous or alternating with water-WAG) is the dominant EOR process in the United States, mostly due to the availability of appropriate CO₂. CO₂ EOR is also the stepping stone towards sequestering carbon which could become a future business opportunity if carbon trading ever is implemented.

This paper presents an overview of EOR field experiences in carbonate reservoirs in the United States, an analysis of recent efforts and discusses briefly on new opportunities for novel chemical methods. The main EOR experiences reviewed are CO₂ injection, polymer flooding, steam injection and in-situ combustion (air injection).