Primer on Enhanced Oil Recovery

Crude oil is a vital natural resource for civilization. Traditional oil extraction is a complex process and on the industrial scale complete extraction of oil from a reservoir is impossible. Less than half of reservoir oil, even in the best case scenario of light oil, can be extracted “relatively” easily. High viscosity crudes are almost unextractable by the traditional methods. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) is a set of technologies and methods to extract more oil and progress extraction up to 80 % and beyond. This book is an introduction to EOR. It covers all basic processes and concepts at the beginning and then introduces all EOR traditional and newly used techniques, including a brief on renewable energy utilisation in EOR. The presented material is very condensed and full subject understanding is only possible on the basis of many other texts, original publications and practical experience.
Crude oil extraction is complicated and is stretched-in-time business. Big profits and losses can be easily made. Good understanding of processes and careful, both technological and business, planning are essential. The book only marks the boundaries of this highly professional field
The book does not require any prior knowledge in oil extraction and is intended for a wide audience.