Federal enhanced oil recovery research: increased understanding of the 300-billion-barrel US residual oil resource and the technologies to produce it

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6910121

Domestic petroleum production is on a path toward steep decline despite much higher oil prices. This decline is detrimental to national interests for the following reasons: the domestic petroleum industry is showing signs of following steel, consumer electronics, and automobiles toward reliance on foreign supplies; increased imports will reduce domestic employment, productivity, and economic activity; increased imports will reduce federal and state tax bases, as other nations capture these economic benefits; increased imports will exacerbate balance of payments deficits; increased imports will increase vulnerability to import disruptions and international pressures from exporting countries and our trading partners; and our national economic and military security demands a significant level of domestic petroleum production. Higher oil prices have increased domestic exploration and prolonged life of marginal wells, but neither of these has nor can significantly offset the decline in petroleum production. Three hundred billion barrels of known residual oil will be abandoned in discovered US reservoirs after conventional production techniques have been exhausted. Residual oil is trapped by interfacial or viscous forces, or lies in parts of the reservoir that cannot be swept by usual means. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) represents a number of processes designed to produce residual oil. Future EOR production is highly uncertain, but EOR has the potential to maintain US oil production near its current level, within current and near-term prices. EOR is potentially the least-cost option for maintaining domestic production. 16 references, 20 figures, 1 table.

• Research Organization: USDOE Bartlesville Project Office, OK (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6910121
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC-84/1/SP; ON: DE84011794
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
020700 -- Petroleum-- Economics
Industrial
& Business Aspects
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INFORMATION
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
PETROLEUM
PRICES
PRODUCTION
RECOVERY
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESIDUAL PETROLEUM
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
USA