Current methods for improved recovery of oil

Canada and the U.S. will have 3.8 and 41.5 billion cu m, respectively, of oil to be left underground as unrecoverable from the oil discovered to date in these 2 countries. Such residuals represent nearly two-thirds of the initial oil-in-place. Assuming that the projected full potential oil reserves of the 2 countries are discovered and further that the technology and the success obtained in improved oil recovery remain where they are now, the combined residual oil quantity in the 2 countries will amount to some 100 billion cu m representing about $75 trillion. The study examines problems and possibilities for thermal, miscible, and improved waterfloods. Under the latter category, variations such as surfactants, microemulsion, carbon dioxide, and polymer and alkaline floods are being tried. The study describes the way in which each process may be applied in the field and the laboratory support work required to design and interpret each application. It has been shown that recovery increases are possible but that the economics is not always good and that each application is somewhat unique and has to be custom designed to field conditions.