Tertiary Oil Recovery
www.TertiaryOilRecovery.com

What is Tertiary Recovery?

Tertiary Oil Recovery, also called Enhanced Oil Recovery or "EOR" is the 3rd and last stage of oil recovery that may recover as much as 60% of the remaining original oil in place. 

When an oil well is first completed and oil production begins in the "primary" oil recovery stage. Approximately 10% to 15% of the "original oil in place" (OOIP) in the oil well's reservoir is recovered via "natural" reservoir drive, meaning the oil reservoir's "natural" energy drive (pressure) forces drive or displace the oil into the production well's well bore.  

The secondary oil recovery stage follows where artificial lift methods such as pumpjacks, submersible pumps and waterflooding technologies are deployed.  About 10% to 30% of the original oil in place is recovered during the secondary oil recovery stage. 

The third and final stage of oil recovery is Tertiary Oil Recovery where 60% to as much as 80% of the original oil in place remains in the oil reservoir.  The Department of Energy and petroleum engineers are on record in stating that Tertiary Oil Recovery has the potential to recover up to 60% of the remaining oil.  This means that in the USA, Tertiary Recovery has the potential to recover up 330 Billion barrels of oil.  At $100/bbl, Tertiary Oil Recovery represents a $30 Trillion market opportunity in the USA alone.

Tertiary Oil Recovery technologies would solve our trade deficit problems, create thousands of new jobs, and save the U.S. economy almost $400 billion/year and end our reliance and dependence on foreign oil suppliers. At the same time, sequester billions of tons of Carbon Emissions, as Carbon Dioxide is used in producing previously non-recoverable oil. When an oil well or oil field reaches the end of its normal life, as much as 75% of the "original oil place" is still left underground in the oil wells. That's because recovering previously non-recoverable oil is either too difficult or too expensive, or both. It has been estimated that by recovering just 1% of the previously non-recoverable oil through Tertiary Oil Recovery that will produce 30 billion additional barrels of oil.

Tertiary Oil Recovery