Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) refers to a set of engineering methods used to extract crude oil that remains trapped in reservoir rock after conventional drilling and pumping have reached their limits — often more than half the original oil in place. Researchers use X-ray computed tomography to image pore-scale fluid behavior directly inside rock samples, building detailed models of how oil, water, and injected agents interact within the microscopic channels of porous media. Much of the current work centers on altering the wettability of reservoir surfaces — how strongly rock prefers oil or water contact — using nanofluids, surfactants, or foam to mobilize oil that would otherwise cling to pore walls. Open questions remain around how nanofluid behavior changes under high-pressure, high-temperature reservoir conditions and how pore-scale observations can be reliably scaled up to predict recovery across an entire field.

Works

67,848

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946,150

Keywords

X-ray Computed TomographyPore-scale ModelingEnhanced Oil RecoveryWettability AlterationNanofluidsSurfactants