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Beranda / Enhanced Oil Recovery, Secondary, and Tertiary Recovery

Enhanced Oil Recovery, Secondary, and Tertiary Recovery


Oil reservoirs rarely give up all their resources easily. In fact, most oil remains underground after initial production, which is why modern petroleum development relies on multiple recovery stages. Understanding secondary and tertiary (enhanced) oil recovery is essential for executives, investors, and policymakers evaluating the long-term value of oil assets.

At its core, oil recovery is a story of technology extending economics.

Primary Recovery: The Starting Point

Primary recovery relies on natural reservoir pressure—such as gas expansion or gravity—to push oil to the surface.

Key characteristics:

  • Low cost

  • Minimal intervention

  • Limited recovery rates (often only 5–15% of oil in place)

Primary recovery is efficient but short-lived. Once reservoir pressure declines, production falls sharply, even though significant oil remains underground.

Secondary Recovery: Extending Reservoir Life

Secondary recovery begins when natural pressure is no longer sufficient. The objective is simple: maintain or restore pressure.

Common secondary recovery methods

  • Water flooding – injecting water to push oil toward production wells

  • Gas injection – using natural gas or other gases to maintain pressure

Benefits:

  • Increases recovery to roughly 20–40%

  • Relatively mature and well-understood technology

  • Cost-effective compared to advanced techniques

Secondary recovery transforms a declining field into a stable, longer-life asset.

Tertiary Recovery (Enhanced Oil Recovery – EOR): Unlocking What’s Left

Tertiary recovery—commonly known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)—targets oil that remains trapped even after secondary methods.

Rather than just pushing oil, EOR focuses on changing the oil or the reservoir conditions.

Major EOR techniques

Thermal EOR

  • Steam injection or cyclic steam stimulation

  • Reduces oil viscosity, allowing it to flow more easily

  • Common in heavy oil reservoirs

Gas Injection EOR

  • CO₂, nitrogen, or hydrocarbon gas injection

  • Improves oil mobility and swelling

  • Often paired with carbon management strategies

Chemical EOR

  • Polymers, surfactants, or alkaline solutions

  • Reduce interfacial tension or improve sweep efficiency

  • Technically complex but increasingly targeted

EOR can raise total recovery rates to 40–60% or more, depending on reservoir characteristics.

Why EOR Matters Strategically

From a leadership perspective, EOR is not just an engineering decision—it is a capital allocation and risk management decision.

Key strategic implications:

  • Maximizes value from existing fields

  • Reduces reliance on new exploration

  • Extends asset life and infrastructure utilization

  • Aligns with emissions strategies when paired with CO₂ sequestration

In a constrained energy environment, recovery efficiency becomes a competitive advantage.

Economic and Risk Considerations

While powerful, EOR is not universally applicable.

Challenges include:

  • Higher capital and operating costs

  • Sensitivity to oil prices

  • Reservoir-specific technical risk

  • Regulatory and environmental considerations

Successful EOR projects depend on data quality, reservoir understanding, and disciplined execution.

A CEO-Level Perspective

Strong decision-makers view recovery stages as a portfolio progression, not isolated techniques.

They ask:

  • How much oil remains—and at what cost can it be produced?

  • Does the price environment justify advanced recovery investment?

  • Can technology and sustainability goals align?

The goal is not maximum recovery at any cost—but maximum value over time.


Summary:

How we get at the 80% of oil still in the ground after primary recovery!



Keywords:

oil investing, oil gas, oil well



Article Body:

Did you know that much of the oil in the ground is still present after primary recovery? In the king's english that means there is still a lot of oil left in a well even after 10 years of pumping. The reason oil production slows is that the natural drive that once pushed oil aggressively towards the wellbore has subsided. Normally, the natural drive is either water or gas in the formation. In this article, we look to explain some of the common enhanced or secondary/tertiary methods of oil recovery.


With oil hitting new highs every day, it is clear the cost benefit of utilizing technology to get at extra production makes sense. When oil was in the $10-20 range, the incremental cost of some enhanced oil recovery methods did not make economic sense.


One of the most common secondary recovery methods is a waterflood. Essentially, a waterflood is a reintroduction of water into the formation to create a drive to push more oil towards the wellbore. To increase the efficiency of a waterflood, new methods utilize Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer floods and some explorers are introducing microbes into the wellbore to increase the sweep efficiency of the flood, both methods have been met with success.


One method I find very interesting and have used with success on one oil well is the radial jet enhancement. The technology utilizes jets of high water pressure to cut laterally into the formation up to almost 300 feet. The technology can be viewed at www.wellenhancementservices.com, ask for Steve Bowen if you are interested in utilizing the technology on some of your new or old wells.


With 80% of the oil still in the ground after primary recovery, there is still plenty of meat on the bone for utilizing EOR. New technologies are constantly being tested and will lead to greater gains in the future. One area I am very interested in is new drilling technology. The rotary drilling rig has not changed radically in 100 years but new advances are coming and we'll discuss those in future blogs.