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Enhanced Oil Recovery is just now becoming economically viable due to better bio-based surfactant systems that get employed at lower concentrations, a reduction in new oil field discovery, and higher oil prices.
Fremont, CA: As the name implies, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) or "Tertiary Oil Recovery" is the third and last stage in extracting all crude oil feasible from an oil reservoir.
Enhanced Oil Recovery is now carried out using various processes, each of which has a different cost, efficiency, and safety consequences. Surfactant EOR has gotten more attention in recent years than any other technology, owing to its increasing cost-effectiveness in the face of rising oil prices.
Importance of the Enhanced Oil Recovery
Oil's value rises in tandem with global demand, making more expensive oil extraction techniques increasingly practical. As a result, fossil fuels will need to get replaced with renewable energy sources in the long run. Meanwhile, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) remains the sole realistic option for recovering up to 80percent of the world's oil reserves.
When oil prices are low, the standard procedure is to extract 20-50 percent of the oil by primary and secondary processes before abandoning it. Generally speaking, drilling new wells is a less expensive production method than enhanced oil recovery, which is why it has taken so long to catch on.
Enhanced Oil Recovery is just now becoming economically viable due to better bio-based surfactant systems that get employed at lower concentrations, a reduction in new oil field discovery, and higher oil prices.
In order to secure the futures of established and emerging economies, it is critical to reducing global oil supply tensions in the short and medium-term. While improved oil recovery is more expensive, it is the difference between expensive oil and no oil in practice.
Chemically enhanced oil recovery (including Surfactant EOR) is quickly getting merited attention as a long-term alternative for virtually total oil field extraction, thanks to recent advancements in chemical research.
Chemically enhanced oil recovery initially gained traction during the 1970s and 1980s oil crises, when rising oil prices enabled early enhanced oil recovery research to thrive. However, these initial discoveries are just now resurfacing on the world's short-list of possibilities for ensuring oil supplies in the twenty-first century.
Chemically enhanced oil recovery has advanced even further in recent years, making the processes safer, cleaner, and more cost-effective than ever before.
