Methodology to rank emerging technologies of chemical enhanced oil recovery method

Abstract

Due to the increase in energy consumption and current challenges replacing reserves, the implementation of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes will continue playing a fundamental role in the global energy balance, either by increasing the recovery factor or by incorporating reserves. Therefore, increase the efficiency of EOR methods represents an important challenge in today’s oil industry and its research is showing a growing interest. For this reason, this work developed a methodology to rank emerging technologies of chemical EOR (CEOR) that can be implemented in Colombian fields in the mid-term. The proposed methodology can be implemented for the prioritization of technologies in general. However, this work is focused on identifying CEOR emerging technologies such as: modified polymers with different functionalities, nanotechnology for CEOR, new surfactants, modified water injection and strong dissociations of chemical substances. Taking into account the novelty of these technologies and the limited number of protocols available to properly evaluate it at laboratory and numerical scale, a set of parameters to assess these technologies in terms of viability for field implementation were defined. These parameters include: 

process maturity degree using Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) concept, expected recovery efficiency, available reserves and Security Energy Commission (SEC) reservoir analogy, associated costs, commercialization, strategic alignment with the Colombian oil industry needs and, finally, the potential environmental impact. Based on the definition of technical screening parameters for each technology and the evaluation of the set of parameters defined in the proposed methodology, a comparative process of the potential of each of the technologies evaluated with the needs of the Colombian fields was carried out. The results of this ranking methodology identified the injection of modified polymer with functionalities and the injection of modified water as the technologies with the largest potential for field implementation. Finally, the ranking of these CEOR technologies will allow focusing efforts in the selection of those with greater potential optimizing time and resources. In addition, it will contribute materializing field development plans, extending production life of Colombian assets as well as supporting the incorporation of oil reserves in the country.