1.

0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Oil demand woes.
The modern world as we know it runs on fossil fuels. Although in recent year alternative fuel
sources have emerged, fossil fuel still remains the more viable option to the world when it
comes to energy. Currently, oil rigs and wells have managed to keep with the everlasting
demand for fossil fuel. Overview data provided by the U.S Energy Information
Administration (2014), as in 2012, Malaysia has managed to produce around 670 thousand
barrels of oil, and have a consumption rate of about 663 thousand barrels of oil per day
which includes production of transportation fuel, and kerosene. Just to name a few. However,
research has shown that this may not last long. Projections based on data also taken from the
U.S Energy Information Administration (2014) from previous years indicate that by the first
quarter of 2016, production rates will be balanced out by consumption rates. Meaning that
there wont be enough left for oil reserves.

Figure 1.0: World Liquid Fuels Production and Consumption Balance

The main reason that this may be occurring is that oil reservoirs are not being depleted to
their maximum potential. Oil recovery is categorized into 3 stages: Primary, Secondary, and
lastly Tertiary. Primary recovery utilizes naturally occurring pressure differences to extract
said resources, which only results in about an extraction of roughly 10% of the reservoirs
total capacity (Mathonnier 2014). When that happens, secondary recovery comes into play.
This method involves water or gas injections, resulting in crude oil being displaced to the
surface. However, primary and secondary recovery only results in a yield of ranging in the
20-40% range. (Kokal and Al-Kaabi, n.d.). This is when tertiary recovery is being decided
whether to be implemented or otherwise, the field or reservoir is being forfeited.

2.0 Discussion of the problem

2.1 Challenges
Tertiary recovery is better known has Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOS) in the energy industry.
The majority of oil in oil reserves are categorized under immobile oil. This means that the oil
is trapped in the rock formation itself and which renders primary and secondary methods
ineffective. Some of this rock formations, based on information from the Paleontological
Research Institute includes salt dome traps, anticline traps, and fault traps. Primary and
Secondary recovery fall under the category of conventional recovery. It is worth taking note
that based on information given by the Office of Fossil Energy up to 60% of an oil
reservoirs oil is trapped within the rock formation, which makes EOS a much prioritized
topic in recent years.
It is logical to assume that EOS should be implemented immediately to maximized oil yield.
But numerous financial factors come into play when deciding if EOS is really the most
suitable option. One of the more important things to consider is if a good profit margin can
be maintained after the implementation of EOS at an oil reservoir. The cost of recovery
increases when EOS is used as extra cost will be induced such as additional materials. As on
the 8th of February, 2015. A barrel of oil is reported by Oil-Price is priced at $51.69 per
barrel. To ensure that a good profit margin is maintained the material used must not take up
too much of the cost of a barrel of oil. One of the most used materials in EOS is carbon
dioxide gas. Or CO2, which costs around $40 per metric ton (Godic, M.L.2012). Aside from
material costs, EOR projects generally require a huge sum of capital investment due to the
requirements needed by and EOR project to succeed. Which includes complex equipment,
and generally takes up a huge amount of time for a project such as this to be fully

commercialized. The condition of the oil reservoir also has to be taken into consideration. If
EOS is applied at a location where conditions arent optimal, such an oil field containing a
low volume of oil, or conditions deemed hazardous. A substantial amount of financial can
occur.

3.0 Recommendations
3.1 Gas Injection
Gas injection or Miscible Gas Injection was introduced in the 1970s and is mainly used in
specialised reservoirs- Light Oil Reservoirs i.e. Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs due to
their properties that contains immobile oil, a challenge faced by most like kind reservoirimmobile oil cannot be produced due to capillary and viscous forces. (

). While few

types of gases are available for disposal and application, carbon dioxide gas has higher
popularity due to a few factors: affordability, availability and practicality. The CO 2 gas is
applied through the injection of large amount of it underground deep into the reservoir
(flooding) which retains oils with high viscosity. CO2 gas will be trapped with the
hydrocarbons (crude oil) upon contact permanently due to its ability to sequestrate to form
stable compound and the reaction will lower the viscosity of the hydrocarbons and endorse
reservoir mobility for improved suction and pumping. Besides that, CO 2 gas can be easily
acquired as it is a form of greenhouse gas and the most emitted waste gaseous compound
from human industrial activities. (

). Also, in relation to its vast availability, the

overall process cost is lowered hence providing platform to maintain reasonable profit
margin, averaging oil price and production cost and ultimately to elongate the life shell of the
reservoir.

3.2Chemical Flooding
Chemical flooding mainly focuses on the chemical properties of the reservoir and it is done
surgically to pin point complication that exists when the production rate has reached its
equilibrium point at 50% or so, once again depending on the reservoir condition: rock
porosity, hydrocarbon viscosity, reservoir pressure and etc. With the emerging and ground
breaking research in the recent years, many types of chemical has been applied into reservoir
for field testing i.e. hydrocarbon polymer, surfactant (to reduce interfacial surface tension),
alkaline or everything stated above. Normally, chemical flooding is implemented in the
secondary or tertiary production phase, it increases and also enhances mobility control with
the addition of polymers i.e. Hydrolysed Polyacrylamide (HPAM); water soluble polymers
for reduction of viscosity and polymer gel for reservoir flow diversion, both allowing better
production by manipulating their properties and chemical reaction. Other types of chemicals
used are for example the surfactant and alkaline which has been proved also to increase
mobility by reducing the Interfacial Surface Tension through reducing forces of attraction
between oil and rock resulting in more free moving hydrocarbon for production. Seeing its
success field results in China when the global oil price was at $140/barrel, many has set foot
to implement Enhanced Oil Recovery through chemical flooding ever since. However,
chemical flooding is deemed costly and may not be applicable at times due to the fluctuation
of oil price in the current period of time suspending at $50/barrel and its limited applicable
area that is in sandstone reservoir only. (www.oil-price.net 2015)

3.3Thermal Injection/Flooding

Thermal injection in Enhanced Oil Recovery has the highest rate of usage providing more
than 3 mil barrels of oil per day worldwide. Prior to its practicality and proven field results. It
has been testified as an efficient way to conduct EOR under many circumstances. Thermal
injection or flooding normally uses steam treatment, in situ combustion and cyclic steam
treatment. The main objective of thermal flooding in general is to introduce heat/ kinetic
energy to reduce permeability and viscosity. Steam treatment is used to provide oil light
fractions. In situ combustion oxidizes hydrocarbon through heating of air to combust the
heaviest crude oil of the reservoir. Electric heaters, gas burners and oxidation reactions are
applied to improve and make present heat energy. Cyclic steam injection proves to be another
efficient way of EOR. The purpose of this (Cyclic Steam Injection) technology is to heat the
formation and oil in the bottom-hole zone of the producing wells, to reduce oil viscosity, to
locally increase the reservoir pressure, to improve the filtration conditions and to increase the
oil inflow to the well. (petros.ru n.d)

>100

<5

<25
>100Worldwide
Number of Projects
<5

Thermal
Chemical
Gas
CO
2 rates
Figure 2.0
: WorldwideHC
EOR
production
(Data from Oil & Gas Journal, SPE, and other
sources)
)
2000
1500

Production (KB/d)
1000

500
0

Figure 2.0: Thermal Flooding as the highest contributor for EOR in daily supply.

4.0 Conclusion.

Others

As a general conclusion. There is no solely one method that can be applied to all oil fields in the
implementation and application of EOR process. Different oil fields have different conditions
thus requiring different methods or sometimes the combination of a few and materials to ensure
that carrying out EOR is still applicable from a financial point of view. Companies can deploy
the skills of geologist and geophysicist and incorporate with Reservoir Engineer hand in hand to
better choose the most suitable method to apply when it comes to EOR.