Open AccessImpact of Innovations on Future Energy Supply – Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR)
Author(s) -
Christian Bittner
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chimia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.387
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2673-2424
pISSN - 0009-4293
DOI - 10.2533/chimia.2013.724
Subject(s) - enhanced oil recovery , fossil fuel , production (economics) , oil in place , agency (philosophy) , environmental science , hydraulic fracturing , petroleum engineering , business , natural resource economics , environmental economics , waste management , petroleum , engineering , chemistry , economics , philosophy , organic chemistry , epistemology , macroeconomics
The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects an increase of global energy demand by one-third during next 20 years together with a change in the global energy mix. A key-influencing factor is a strong expected increase in oil and gas production in the United States driven by 'new' technologies such as hydraulic fracturing. Chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) is another strong growing technology with the potential of a step change innovation, which will help to secure future oil supply by turning resources into reserves. While conventional production methods give access to on average only one-third of original oil in place, the use of surfactants and polymers allows for recovery of up to another third of this oil. In the case of polymer flooding with poly acrylamide, the number of full field implementations has increased in recent years. In the meantime new polymers have been developed to cover previously unmet needs – such polymers can be applied in fields of high salinity and high temperature. Use of surfactants is in an earlier stage, but pilot tests show promising results.