Nearly two-thirds of crude still gets left in the ground

Squeeze That Sponge. By Guy Chazan
Nearly two-thirds of crude still gets left in the ground. With enhanced oil recovery, companies are determined to lower that number.
WSJ, Apr 29. 2009

Often stymied in their quest for new crude, Western oil companies are squeezing more out of the reserves they already have.

Despite the engineering advances of the past century, nearly two-thirds of crude still gets left in the ground. So oil companies are raising the ante, investing billions of dollars in cutting-edge technology to increase the amount of crude they can tap.

The potential rewards are huge: Raising the average recovery rate world-wide to 50% from 35% would boost the world's recoverable oil by about 1.2 trillion barrels -- equal to the whole of today's proven reserves, the International Energy Agency says.

"It's the prize for the next half-century," says Howard Mayson, vice president for technology at British oil giant BP PLC, which relies heavily on enhanced-recovery methods. Among the processes BP uses: flooding reservoirs with polymers that expand like popcorn when they come into contact with hot rocks, thus flushing more oil out of difficult-to-reach nooks.

Read the full report at the link above.