Posted: May 22nd, 2023

EOR by the use of chemical methods best suits the area

In Karamay oil fields, EOR by the use of chemical methods best suits the area. This is because many oil fields are in high-water cut production era. This minimizes the cost of production while at the same time maintaining high oil production. Different EOR screening methods were experimented so as to establish the most appropriate recovery method. Efficiency of the method used, total cost and the total percentage of oil recovered were some of the factors during screening process. In Karamay region, surface mining was found not suitable since there was too much surface digging and hence costly and time consuming. In this case, the required amount of digging of about 8000ft depth. Likewise, EOR by the use of steam does not work since the reservoirs present in Karamay region exceed the maximum depth of 4500ft, which is convenient for this method. Combustion on the other hand was found not suitable due to its pollution characteristics. This method tends release a lot of CO_2 into the air which causes global warming, hence affecting the climate across the globe. When it comes to the efficiency of EOR, immiscible gas method does not fit either. This is because of its low end recovery product. Immiscible has low salvage when judged against the miscible gas which is not in the API range. This makes it uneconomical due to the fact that the amount pumped into the process does not reflect on the total profit. As such, the only EOR method which was found to fit for Karamay region was chemical flooding. Figure 1 summarizes the screening process which was conducted in the Karamay region.