I don’t live in Wyoming, but I enjoy reading Cowboy State Daily. The online publication chronicles the goings-on in one of my favorite states, and its coverage of energy issues is solid. Last week, the Daily reported on a partnership that’s “expected to put Wyoming on the map for researching enhanced oil recovery techniques.”
In the fall of 2014, I wrote a column about EOR.
Enjoy!
■ ■ ■
Call it fracking’s kid brother.
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) doesn’t inspire the hatred of greenie pols and Hollywood ignoramuses. It attracts little praise or condemnation from pundits. And it’s responsible for just 12 percent of U.S. production of black gold. But as long as the global price of petroleum stays high, look for EOR’s importance to grow.
First, the basics. In a 1981 profile of early EOR tinkering, The New York Times explained: “[I]n primary recovery, oil is pushed to the surface by underground water pressure or by pressures generated by gas mixed in with the oil. As these natural pressures subside, water is injected through separate wells to increase the pressure sufficiently to continue forcing out oil. This is called secondary recovery.”
But as the Times noted, “the great bulk of oil … stubbornly remains in the ground,” even after completion of the two extraction processes. EOR, also known as tertiary recovery, lowers the viscosity of the “leftovers” — by injecting chemicals, gases, or heat — in an attempt to get every last drop.
No matter which method is selected, expenditures can add up quickly. According to the website Rigzone, “producers do not use EOR on all wells and reservoirs. The economics of the development equation must make sense. Therefore, each field must be heavily evaluated to determine which type of EOR will work best on the reservoir. This is done through … characterization, screening, scoping, and … modeling and simulation.”
Ironically, the stuff that has Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio so terrified is proving to be EOR’s best tool. Carbon dioxide is becoming the technique’s dominant ingredient, displacing steam and nitrogen. In the analogy of a Texas EOR executive: “If you’ve ever tried to get oil-based paint off of something with a garden hose, you know it’s hard to get off. CO2 acts like a solvent.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to No Dowd About It to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.