Mining Fluids' Influence on Improved Oil Recovery

 The advancement of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies has triggered a new oil boom in the United States. EOR, also known as tertiary mining, is a variant on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") that has allowed oil companies to more than quadruple the quantity of oil and/or natural gas recoverable from otherwise exhausted reservoirs. After primary and secondary recovery procedures, crude oil recovery from an oilfield generally amounts to no more than 40% of a reservoir's potential. EOR with tertiary oil recovery was created in order to increase this recovery factor.



EOR Three Methods

EOR can be accomplished using one of three approaches. These entail injecting chemicals deep below to increase recoverable oil production by 20-30%. As a result, previously abandoned minefields may be repurposed.

The first method employs thermal energy injection. This accounts for up to 40% of US EOR technology now in use, particularly in California. The second approach includes injecting gases such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide into the subsurface oil to increase pressure, pushing the oil into the wellbore and lowering viscosity, allowing the oil to flow more easily. This technology accounts for around 60% of current EOR output in the United States.

The third kind of EOR technique gaining popularity in American oilfields is chemical injection (sometimes known as "chemical flooding"). This approach alters the rheological characteristics of the fluid used for injection into the reservoir by using one or more substances such as surfactant(s), alkali, and long-chain polymers such as polyacrylamide. These compounds work together to reduce oil viscosity, surface tension, and allow oil to flow more easily, considerably enhancing oil and gas recovery. This approach is anticipated to account for less than 1% of domestic EOR generation at the moment.

The use of the necessary continuous mixing equipment results in adequate rheology modifier dispersion and enables for the continuous generation of acceptable EOR fluids during the somewhat lengthy polymer injection phase.

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