Managing the Cost of Enhanced Oil Recovery

The drop in crude-oil prices has caused a worldwide slowing down of the growth of enhanced-recovery activities and a recentering on less costly processes. The technical costs of implementing such methods have diminished, mainly because of the decrease in the cost of services, but insufficiently to ensure the economic viability of many projects. Therefore, today even more than yesterday, it is of prime importance to search for all ways of reducing the cost of enhanced recovery. It is thus indispensable to improve our mastery of process, the knowledge and management of reservoirs, and to use the appropriate indicators to follow the evolution of costs. Likewise, synergisms resulting from the use of horizontal drain holes at the same time as steam or polymer flooding must be systematically sought for. Lastly, only sustained activity in the field of pilot projects can enable these goals to be reached.