Enhanced Recovery Processes

IN-DEPTH REFERENCE SHOWING READERS HOW TO MAXIMIZE HYDROCARBON RECOVERY THROUGH EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND ENERGY TRANSITION APPLICATIONS

Enhanced Recovery Processes serves as a comprehensive reference for readers aiming to maximize hydrocarbon recovery from reservoirs that are close to exhausting their primary and secondary production methods, addressing a changing paradigm not only in terms of evolving and emerging technologies but also in the era of energy transition. The book includes coverage of recovery enhancement techniques in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs, as well as the novel techniques developed in the oil and gas industry. In this book, we use the term Enhanced Recovery (ER) in a broader sense than its traditional usage. While Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) remains an important component, our definition of ER encompasses enhanced hydrocarbon recovery as well as other innovative recovery strategies that align with the evolving needs of the energy transition. By adopting ER as an umbrella concept, we emphasize not only improved methods for extracting hydrocarbons but also emerging technologies and practices that contribute to efficiency, sustainability, and the integration of low-carbon solutions into the energy system.

In this book, readers will learn how Enhanced Recovery (EOR) processes have the potential to be a bridge technology leading to the energy transition, enabling continued oil production while reducing its environmental impact. By achieving this dual objective, EOR processes help countries not only meet energy demand, but also satisfy emission/climate goals. The authors show how this approach is particularly important in the world where oil production cannot stop without important ramifications where instant/very short-term switching to renewables is not feasible.

Enhanced Recovery Processes includes information on:

• Cold heavy oil production, covering inert gas injection (IGI) and gravity drainage approaches, heavy oil polymers, and foamy oil
• Chemical enhanced recovery, covering wettability and fluid flow in reservoir rocks, wettability alteration floods, polymer floods, and alkali flooding
• Gas injection methods, covering cyclic gas injection, miscible and immiscible CO2 and hydrocarbon gas flooding, and flue gas injection
• Alternative/novel methods including sound waves, ultrasonic high frequency and seismic low frequency, pressure pulsing, and solar/thermal
• Synergistic application of EOR techniques for carbon capture, utilization and storage

Delivering state-of-the-art technology applications and research, Enhanced Recovery Processes is a timely, essential read on the subject for all researchers and practitioners in the oil and gas industry as well as the mining, utility, and energy industries.