DHAHRAN, 1 April 2003 — King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is developing technology that could dramatically increase oil recovery. The research project, for Saudi Aramco, is being conducted by KFUPM’s Research Institute.
According to Dr. Al-Majid of the Center of Petroleum and Minerals, the research focuses on combining two methods of oil recovery. The first is the water-gas alternating process and the second is horizontal well infill drilling.
He said the first phase concentrates on studying reservoirs and the water-gas alternating process.
The institute is expected to complete the study within two years.
Dr. Al-Majid said it was estimated that for every barrel of oil produced, two barrels are left in the ground. He said it was also important not to abandon wells, as, once abandoned, they were expensive to reopen. He said that 20 or 30 years ago, many oil reservoirs in Saudi Arabia were regarded as noncommercial and not fully exploited.
With increasing demand and prices, these reservoirs are being re-evaluated as a result of new technology. Such new technology now accounts for over 12 percent of oil production in the US, where it is estimated that between 15,000 and 22,000 marginal wells are abandoned each year.
Dr. Al-Majid said oil reservoirs may be regarded as marginal due to factors such as the rock being segmented, or having low porosity or low permeability. This results in the oil moving slowly, and consequently production rates are low.
Fields with tight reservoirs like the Berry-Fadhili, which has reservoirs of about four billion barrels, will be more readily accessible with the new technology and this will increase oil production, he said.
