Injection of water, steam, gases or chemicals into underground reservoirs to cause oil to flow toward producing wells, permitting more recovery than would have been possible from natural pressure or pumping alone.
Removal of some of the heavy oil left in an oil well after primary and secondary recovery. See primary oil recovery, secondary oil recovery.
Secondary and tertiary techniques for recovering crude from a pool. Oil is recovered other than by the natural pressure in a reservoir. These methods increase the proportion of oil recovered, but at additional cost.
The recovery of hydrocarbons from a reservoir other than by the use of natural reservoir pressure. This can involve increasing the pressure (secondary recovery), heating or increasing the pore size of the reservoir (tertiary recovery).
Injection of steam into oilholding geologic zones to increase ability to extract oil by lowering its viscosity. Also used to designate a special category of gas customers.
The use of any process for the displacement of oil from the reservoir other than primary recovery.
The introduction of an artificial drive and displacement mechanism, usually steam, into a reservoir to produce oil unrecoverable by primary and secondary recovery methods.
Refers to a variety of processes to increase the amount of oil removed from a reservoir, typically by injecting a liquid (e.g., water, surfactant) or gas (e.g., nitrogen, carbon dioxide).
Recovery of oil or gas from a reservoir by artificially maintaining or enhancing the reservoir pressure by injecting gas, water or other substances into the reservoir rock.
Any method that increases oil production by using techniques or materials that are not part of normal pressure maintenance or water flooding operations. For example, natural gas can be injected into a reservoir to "enhance" or increase oil production.
A process whereby oil is recovered other than by the natural pressure in a reservoir.
Increased production of oil from an oil field, brought about by injecting gas (eg CO2) or water to raise the oil pressure and force more oil out.
advanced technologies, such as water flooding, steam injection, CO2 injection applied to increase production, usually from mature, underdeveloped fields.
Often termed EOR, enhanced oil recovery injection wells are used to help prolong an oil field's life. Most commonly, salt water that is pumped to the surface is reinjected into the oil reserve. This forces the remaining oil into the pumping well. This process is known as secondary recovery. In contrast, tertiary recovery is the process of injecting gases, chemical additives, and sometimes even steam into a depleting well to prolong production.
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) is a generic term for techniques for increasing the amount of oil that can be extracted from an oil field. Using EOR, 30-60 %, or more, of the reservoir's original oil can be extracted compared with 20-40 % using primary and secondary recovery.