Enhanced Oil Recovery

Developing and deploying low-cost, step-change technologies to improve the recovery of hydrocarbons

This statement from David Eyton, bp's EVP of Innovation and Engineering, puts Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) firmly in the spotlight with expectations to deliver.  bp delivers more conventional oil with EOR technology than any other International Oil Company (IOC) – more than 10% of the world’s total.

How much oil can be recovered from a field (its recovery factor) depends on four fractions, each multiplied one another.  The fractions with the most potential to increase are:

• Pore-scale Displacement (how much oil is displaced from rock reached by the water or gas injected); and
• Sweep (how effectively does the injected fluid spread out from the injection well and reach all of the rock between the injector and producer wells.)

So these are the areas of focus for bp’s EOR technology development.

Our EOR Technologies divide into two types - Designer Water® EOR and Designer Gas

®Designer Water® EOR technologies are being studied for their potential in ACG:

• Bright Water™: Submicron, thermally activated particles that expand deep in the reservoir reducing the flow in thief zones and diverting injection water into poorly swept areas of the reservoir. 
• Some other new technology EOR solutions that can significantly increase recovery compared to conventional waterflooding are under investigation for ACG.