SBI Bulletin - EOR Around the World

SBI Bulletin EOR Around the World: Projects and Markets 2009-2015 provides a country by country global overview of enhanced oil recovery markets. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR), also referred to as improved oil recovery or tertiary oil recovery, is most often achieved by injecting a liquid or gas into an oil reservoir, thereby lowering oil viscosity and increasing the amount of oil available for production. Some of the more common EOR methods include CO2-EOR, thermal EOR and chemical EOR. Microbial EOR and seismic EOR also hold a strong niche in the EOR market. While only about 10% - 30% of oil is typically extracted by conventional oil production processes, EOR methods can enhance these recovery rates by an additional 5% to 20% on average.

Technological challenges, hazy regulations, and costly implementation have in past often kept oil companies from using EOR. However, EOR is quickly becoming more feasible due to rising government interest and investment, new technologies, and increased availability of required materials such as CO2. It is expected EOR will continue to perform extremely well in the world marketplace.