Crude oil production coming from Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) could be in excess of a quarter of a million barrels despite the relatively high capital cost of such ventures, said state-owned Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

“Despite the complexity and cost of EOR projects and the need to prioritise low unit technical cost oil, EOR remains a central pillar of PDO’s evolving portfolio. It is anticipated that by 2025 more than 25 per cent of PDO’s production will come from such projects,” Oman Observer quoted Oman’s largest oil and gas producer, citing the company’s recent PDO Sustainability Report 2016.

A number of commercial-scale EOR projects are currently in operation based primarily on miscible gas injection (MGI), chemical and thermal technologies, PDO said, adding that the company is also pursuing the testing and development of a string of “novel EOR technologies”.

The biggest of its portfolio of EOR schemes currently in operation is the Marmul polymer project, the report said.

Over the six years since it has been in operation, the Marmul project has delivered around 12 million barrels of oil. It also paved the way for the successful rollout of the second phase in 2015, entailing the injection of polymer into a further 19 injectors.

“The additional injectors have been injecting polymer smoothly and an increase in oil production due to this was observed in 2016 with an oil gain of about 1,800 barrels per day (bpd),” said PDO.

In Block 6, near miscible gas injection (MGI) targeting the Birba field has yielded an additional 8 million bpd of oil for 5.5 billion cu m of gas injected over the past 23 years.

MGI is also on target to achieve up to 45 per cent recovery from infill horizontal drilling and additional gas injection, PDO said.

At Qarn Alam in central Oman, thermal gas oil gravity drainage (GOGD) has helped deliver 6 million barrels of oil based on the injection of 2.9 million tonnes of steam over the past six years. Output rose an incremental 650 bpd above target last year, PDO said.

Output from the Amal field, the subject of a steam flood, was 12,824 bpd as the year’s average oil production, the company added.