Oil Demand Increases as Production has Decreased

1976 WordsFeb 2, 20188 Pages
1. Introduction Currently, demand for oil in the United States is growing. However, production of oil through the conventional methods has decreased. Moreover, since 1970, the oil reserves in the U.S. have been falling by about 3.8% per year, as there is a slowdown in oil discoveries (OTA 1978). Thus, application of new technologies to improve the extraction of oil is essential. One of the proven techniques to eliminate this problem is enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method. It is known that implementation of EOR in several states of the U.S. has been successfully extracting most of oil in the wells. In the EOR process gas or heated fluid is injected into reservoirs to produce additional oil from the oil fields. In the U.S. there are three main types of EOR methods, namely: thermal methods, chemical injection and gas flooding. This project will argue that although chemical injection and thermal methods have their strengths gas flooding is the most efficient way of oil recovery. First, a brief overview about oil recovery and stages of this process will be addressed. Then, general characteristics of EOR methods will be examined. Finally, those methods will be evaluated according to the criteria of efficiency, environmental sustainability and cost. 2. Oil recovery Development and production of crude oil in the U.S. oil fields can comprise of up to three different stages: primary, secondary, and tertiary, which is generally known as enhanced, oil recovery. The primary oil
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