Federal Enhanced Oil Recovery Research: Increased Understanding of the 300-Billion-Barrel US Residual Oil Resource and the Technologies to Produce It

摘要

In accord with the Department of Energy (DOE) goal of ''adequate supply of energy at reasonable cost'' and the DOE Fossil Energy emphasis on long-range, high-risk research to complement, but not duplicate private R and D, Federal Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) research has forged a partnership with the research community to increase the fundamental understanding of the residual oil resource and the EOR technologies to produce it. As understanding increases, the investigators will be able to predict more accurately the performance of EOR processes in specific reservoirs, to increase the effectiveness of oil recovery, to help stabilize secure domestic production, and to estimate future US oil production rates more reliably. Predictability and recovery effectiveness are the critical creteria of the Federal EOR research program. This briefing reviews the problem of declining US oil production; the opportunity for EOR to produce a larger portion of the massive residual oil resource, thereby offsetting this decline; the current technical constraints on EOR; and the Federal EOR research program designed to generate vitally important knowledge to realize this opportunity. 35 refs. (ERA citation 11:008280)