Using the EORI Scoping Tool to Assess the Potential Suitability of a Wyoming Oil Field for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Klaas van 't Veld¹, J. Michael Boyles², Brian Towler³, Ahmet Ergenc³, and Charles Mason³. (1) Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, phone: (307) 766-3143, [email protected], (2) Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, (3) Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 82071

Scoping tools such as that developed by Kinder Morgan for CO₂ floods provide operators with a useful intermediate-level assessment of the potential suitability of an oil field for enhanced oil recovery—intermediate between applying simple screening "rules of thumb" and going to the expense of applying a full-fledged field simulation model. An important limitation of these scoping tools, however, is that they are based on experience with EOR at a given field. If the particular field being assessed is not sufficiently "similar" to the field used to build the scoping tool, then the tool's predictions will be unreliable. An analysis of CO₂-flood experience at fields in Wyoming suggest that these fields in fact differ substantially from the fields (located in West Texas and Oklahoma) underlying the KM tool, which points to the need for a Wyoming-specific scoping tool. The tool currently under development at the University of Wyoming's Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute will address this need. Other limitations of the KM tool are its exclusive focus on a single EOR method and its assumption of a fixed price path when assessing the economic viability of EOR. In contrast, the EORI tool will allow operators to assess non- CO₂ methods as well, and to explicitly account for price uncertainty when performing the economic analysis.