Enhanced oil recovery method for highly viscous oil reservoirs based on in-situ modification of physico-chemical properties

Abstract

The demand for hydrocarbons has grown substantially over the past decades and continues to do so. Thus, according to OPEC, the oil demand is expected to increase by 16.4 million barrels per day up to 2040, whereby, if in 2021 the daily hydrocarbon consumption was 99.2 mln barrels per day, by 2040 this figure will rise to 109.4 mln barrels per day. Researchers are of course trying to cope with the increasing demand for hydrocarbon energy carriers year on year by using increasingly innovative exploitation and development techniques. However, despite the prospects of these technologies, they do not entirely solve the problem. In this respect, improving the efficiency of heavy oil field development is the more realistic alternative. Today the most actual methods of heavy oil field development are the technologies aimed at in-situ modification of physical and chemical properties of oil. However, these methods still have a number of drawbacks that impede their wide commercial application. Keywords: heavy oil; enhanced oil recovery; in-situ combustion; thermal EOR; catalytic EOR.