THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF EOR TECHNOLOGY FOR ONSHORE OIL FIELDS IN CHINA

摘要

In recent years most of the major oil companies in the world have suspended the research for chemical flooding techniques due to the low oil price in the international market. However, the laboratory study, pilot tests and expanded demonstration tests for chemical flooding have still been developed very fast in China's onshore oil fields.The major results of research and field tests for EOR especially for chemical flooding in China during the last thirty years are reviewed in this paper. It is indicated that the research and application of EOR are of great importance and urgency to China's onshore oil industry based on the specific geological conditions and current performance of China's oil fields.The results of screening, potential and development strategy by using various EOR methods such as polymer flooding, surfactant flooding and miscible flooding are described. The research and field tests show that polymer flooding is the most successful technique in onshore oil fields and alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding still keeps attractive in large potential of producing more oil, and miscible flooding exhibits the most prospective application in the light oil reservoirs discovered in the western part of China. Future prospects for commercial application of various EOR techniques, especially polymer flooding and ASP combination flooding, are introduced.