


12/05/13 at 10:09 AM

Reservoir technology combines reservoir fluid flow modelling with input from geophysics, geology, petrophysical properties and observed production history, to evaluate and optimise solutions for reservoir drainage.

The company's goal  will be obtained through intensified research and development (R&D) on selected topics, where the key R&D-results quickly are adapted and applied in Statoil-operated fields.

This work continuously challenges the researcher's and reservoir engineer's ability to pin-point the key field-specific IOR potential/mechanism and ''tailor-make'' the right recipe for improved oil recovery (IOR).

This includes both increased predictive capabilities through integrated workflows for fast update of geological and reservoir simulation models and increased understanding of relevant IOR-mechanisms at all relevant scales in the reservoirs.

Over the years, Statoil has made enormous strides in various oil recovery methods, ranging from water injection for pressure support through various advanced procedures for improving oil recovery.

The latter include mature technologies as hydrocarbon gas-based recovery methods, particularly the combining of hydrocarbon gas and water injection, because water and gas displace oil from different parts of a reservoir. The technique is called Water-Alternating-Gas or WAG for short, or SWAG (Simultaneous WAG) if the injection of water and gas is simultaneous.

This ''knowledge database'' is now combined with new technology for CO2-capturing, and Statoil is now performing studies on offshore CO2 WAG-injection for IOR.

More recently, attention has also been focused on new water-assisted methods, i.e. introducing “additives” to the injection water (changing composition) in order to improve or optimize the water flood efficiency. 

Examples are surfactants, to mobilize residual oil after water-flooding and polymer gels to block preferential water flow through high permeability (thief) zones.

R&D activities have been carried out for many years to improve the understanding of relevant mechanisms and to improve our predictive capability, including finding relations between surface chemistry, wettability, capillary pressure, and relative permeability.

Alternative recovery methods has also been investigated, especially Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) which is implemented in the Statoil-operated Norne field. MEOR is a method that uses bacterial processes to wash (mobilize) more oil from the pores of the reservoir rocks than water.

Statoil meets international possibilities through competence-building within selected strategic areas such as heavy oil recovery and tight fractured gas reservoirs and carbonate reservoirs.
This includes studies of cold and hot recovery methods for heavy oil studies on depletion, non-equilibrium gas injection and water-assisted methods for tight gas reservoirs and carbonate reservoirs.

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