New composite materials enhance HP/HT operations

摘要

Glass fiber based thermoset composites handle high temperatures and extreme pressures yet are easily drilled out in downhole applications. In most US and many overseas oil reservoirs the easy crude oil was produced long ago. Today, production gains rely on secondary and increasingly on tertiary enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. Only about 10% of the oil in a reservoir is typically produced during primary recovery, where natural formation pressure or gravity force oil to the surface. Secondary recovery -injecting gas or water into the formation to drive oil to the well bore - has been used for decades to produce 20% to 40% of the original oil in the reservoir.