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Development of mature oil fields A

review
ARTICLE in JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING JUNE 2007
Impact Factor: 1.42 DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2006.10.006
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1 AUTHOR:
Tayfun Babadagli
University of Alberta
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221 246

www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol
Development of mature oil fields A review

Tayfun Babadagli
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Mining and Petroleum, University of Alberta, 3-112 Markin CNRL-NREF Building,
Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2W2
Received 23 May 2006; received in revised form 11 October 2006; accepted 12 October 2006
Abstract
Development of mature oil fields has been, and will increasingly be, an attractive subject. Mature field development practices can be
divided into two major groups: (1) well engineering and (2) reservoir engineering. This paper focuses on the reservoir engineering aspects.
An extensive review of previously reported reservoir management practices for mature field development is provided. After the
definition of mature field and an overview, different aspects of mature field development are outlined. The first issue covered is the
estimation of remaining reserves focusing on the determination of the amount and location of the residual oil after primary and
secondary recovery using field, log, and core data. After valuing the remaining oil, methods to recover it are classified. They
include tertiary recovery, infill drilling, horizontals, optimal waterflooding design for mature fields, optimal well placement and
other reservoir management practices. Suggested or implemented field application examples for big fields owned by majors and
small fields owned by independents are presented.
Special attention is given to tertiary oil recovery. An extensive review and critical analysis of tertiary recovery techniques
covering the theoretical, practical, and economical aspects of it are provided. The emphasis is on their applicability in mature field
development in terms of effectiveness (incremental recovery) and efficiency (cost and recovery time). Laboratory and field scale
applications of different tertiary recovery techniques, i.e., gas (double displacement, WAG, and miscibleimmiscible HC, CO2, and
N2), chemical (dilute surfactant, polymer, and micellar injection), and thermal (air and steam) injection, conducted to develop
mature fields are included. Specific examples of big/giant fields, fields producing for decades, and mid to small size fields were
selected. Differences in reservoir management strategies for majors, independents, and national oil companies are discussed.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Mature fields; Remaining oil; Residual oil saturation; Tertiary oil recovery; Reservoir management techniques
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Definition and elements of mature field development . .
How much oil is left and where is the remaining oil? .
Techniques used to determine the amount of remaining
4.1. Core analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2. Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3. Volumetric-reservoir engineering studies . . . .
. .
. .
. .
oil
. .
. .
. .
E-mail address: tayfun@ualberta.ca.

0920-4105/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2006.10.006
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T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246
4.4. Production data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.5. Well testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.6. Chemical tracers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.7. Field experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Tertiary recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1. Laboratory scale investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.1. Non-fractured rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.2. Immiscible gas injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2. Miscible gas injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3. Air injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4. Chemical injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5. Fractured rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Field scale applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7. Reservoir management practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8. Well placement, infill drilling, horizontal wells and optimizing waterflooding
9. Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nomenclature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
The world average of oil recovery factor is estimated
to be 35%. Additional recovery over this easy oil
depends on the availability of proper technologies,
economic viability, and effective reservoir management
strategies. On the other hand, the chance of discovering
giant fields remarkably decreases (Blaskovich, 2000).
The discovery rate for the giant fields peaked in the late
1960s and early 1970s and declined remarkably in the
last two decades (Ivanhoe, 1997). About thirty giant
fields comprise half of the world's oil reserves and most
of them are categorized as mature field. The development of those fields entails new and economically viable
techniques, and proper reservoir management strategies
(Black and LaFrance, 1998; Al-Attar, 2004).
Mature field development is a broad subject. It can,
however, be divided into two main parts: (1) well
development, and (2) reservoir development. Depending
on the field type, history, and prospects, the development
plans could be done on either one or both. This paper
covers reservoir engineering aspects of mature field
development. Determination of the amount and location
of the remaining oil is the key issue in this exercise.
Techniques to improve the recovery factor such as tertiary
recovery, infills, horizontals, and optimal placement of the
new wells are the other elements of reservoir development.
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225
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241
241
241
fields is the fields reaching the peak of their production

or producing fields in declining mode. A third definition
could be the fields reaching their economic limit after
primary and secondary recovery efforts. Fig. 1 shows a
typical production life of a field. Any points indicated by
a question mark can be considered as the time when the
maturity is reached. The tendency, however, is to define
the decline period indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1, which
is typically reached after having some secondary recovery efforts. Increasing water and gas production,
decreasing pressure, and aging equipment are other indicators of maturity.
Technologies to revitalize mature oil fields are based
on either well or reservoir applications. Once the maximum number of wells that can possibly be applicable to
the field is reached, well development practices such as
2. Definition and elements of mature field development

Oil fields after a certain production period are called
mature fields. A more specific definition of mature
Fig. 1. Different stages of oil recovery that can be assumed as the

starting of the maturity of a field. Typical tendency is the period
indicated by the arrow.
223
Table 1
Logs used to determine residual oil saturation
Log type
Technique
Cased hole
Accuracy
Resistivity
Pulsed neutron
Nuclear
magnetism
Carbon/Oxygen
Conventional
Log-inject-log
Conventional
N
Y
N
Poor
Good
Poor
Log-inject-log
Good
recompletion, stimulation, treatments, optimization of

lift, re-collection of data, surveillance, and new entries
are considered. Next, injectors for pressure maintenance
or displacement are drilled mainly targeting secondary or
tertiary recovery. For any of those practices, one needs to
know the amount and location of the target oil first. Rebooking the reserves for such cases has always been a
challenge due to uncertainties and difficulties in the
estimation of residual oil saturation (Ross, 1998).
Therefore, the first issue to tackle in mature field development is to quantify the amount of oil left. Obviously,
the next step is to quantify the recoverable amount
accurately and find out the tools/methods to achieve this.
It is critical to decide when to start these applications to
maximize the ultimate recovery of oil. This is an important issue especially for tertiary recovery applications
if the company is concerned with the ultimate recovery
rather than accelerating the production rate in short term.
Efficiency is the key issue in mature field development. The cost of the project increases while the revenue
gained from additional oil recovery decreases as a field
ages. This is obviously the disadvantageous part of the
practice. On the other hand, having a great deal of information about the field, experience, and data gathered
over the years is the advantageous part of it.
In the following sections, we discuss the reservoir
engineering aspects of mature field development and
review the possible techniques and applications on how
much recoverable oil there is, how fast it can be recovered, and how cost efficient it would be.
3. How much oil is left and where is the remaining oil?
Determination of the amount of residual oil saturation after primary and secondary recovery processes is a
challenge. Locating the oil to be recovered is a difficult
exercise and requires sophisticated techniques as well.
Egbogah provided an extensive review of those techniques (Egbogah, 1994). Volumetric reservoir engineering studies and core analysis are the tools to be used for
the amount of the remaining oil but not the distribution
of it. Tracer tests or well test methods are used to determine
the location and distribution of the remaining oil.
4. Techniques used to determine the amount of

remaining oil
4.1. Core analysis
Fluid saturation of virgin or waterflooded cores are
determined by distillation (water saturation) and extraction
(oil saturation) using solvents. It has been recognized that
relating oil saturation to in situ values is a serious problem.
Special core analysis (SCAL) increases the accuracy of the
estimation as it represents realistic reservoir conditions
(pressure, temperature, and wettability) but it is costly
compared to conventional core analysis (Wyman, 1976).
The residual oil saturation obtained from core analysis may
not be representative for the whole reservoir as the
displacement is not controlled only by microscopic factors
at the field scale. The following equation proposed by
Kazemi (1977) is used to estimate the residual oil saturation
at reservoir scale using core residual oil saturation:
P
So res So core Bo E
M
1 V2
4.2. Logs
Resistivity, pulsed neutron capture, nuclear magnetism,
carbon/oxygen, and gamma radiation logs are used to
determine the residual oil saturation. Both conventional or
log-inject-log applications are possible for some of these
logs. Table 1 lists the application types, advantages, and
disadvantages of each logging technique.
Water saturation from resistivity logs can be calculated
using the following equation introduced by Waxman and
Smits for shaly sands, which is a modified form of Archie's
classic equation (Waxman and Thomas, 1968).
2
!1n 3
R
1
R
BQ
o
w
V
5
Sw 4
V
Rt
1 RwSBQ
w
where B is defined as follows:

B 0:0461 0:6eCw =0:013
224
cw is the reciprocal of Rw. The oil saturation is estimated

using So = 1 Sw. This relationship is commonly used for
the conventional applications of resistivity logs as well as a
few others such as Simandoux and Fertl and Hammack
equations.
The same types of logs are used for log-inject-log
applications as well. In this process, oil bearing formation is logged to obtain the Rt first. A solvent is then
injected to remove oil. Finally, brine is injected to measure the Ro. The oil saturation is calculated using the
following relationship:
Ro
So 1
Rt
1n
Both conventional and log-inject-log applications are

used only in open holes. The accuracy of the saturation
exponent, n is vital in the estimation of the remaining oil
(or reserves). Due to the empirical nature of this quantity, the use of resistivity logs in the saturation estimation has always been questionable. Small changes in this
exponent may result in significant variations in the
reserves obtained by volumetric calculations. Variability
of the saturation exponent in the reservoir caused by the
clay content and pore structure is another factor affecting the accuracy of the reserves estimation (Worthington
and Pallatt, 1992).
The term QV in Eq. (2) is also critical in the estimation
of the amount of remaining oil. In many applications,
misinterpretation of the logs due to lesser amounts of
clay considered in the system causes underestimation of
the amount of oil. In an unpublished study, Al-Kharusi
(unpublished) found the QV value to be 0.4 for a
sandstone reservoir in Oman containing different types
of clays (ankerite, chlorite, koalinite, and illite) by
multiple salinity technique using the following equation:
Co
1
BQV Cw
F
with high accuracy. The following equation is applied to

estimate the remaining oil saturation:
Sor 1
Rt2 Rt1
/Rw2 Rw1
where t1 and t2 , and w1 and w2 are the capture

cross sections of the formation and water measured
before and after the injection, respectively.
A more accurate technique was proposed later using
nuclear magnetism log. This techniques detects hydrogen in the water and oil and applicable as inject-log.
Water containing paramagnetic ions is injected into the
formation and the Free Flow Index (IFflow) of oil is
directly or computationally obtained. Then, the following equation is applied to estimate the remaining oil
saturation:
Sor
IFflow
/
This technique is applicable only in open holes.

Another log type used to determine the remaining oil
saturation is the carbon-oxygen (C/O) log, which detects
carbon (exists in HC) and oxygen (exists in water). It is
The plot of Cw vs. Co yielded QV. Previous experience for this field had shown that the QV = 0.1.
Those values of QV as well as the case of QV = 0 were
compared in Fig. 2. Significant changes in the oil
saturation values were observed with an increase in the
QV. Incorrect estimation of the amount of clay or
electrically conductive minerals results in an underestimated value of hydrocarbon saturation (Cook et al.,
2000).
Pulsed neutron capture (PNC) log can be used in loginject-log applications for both open and cased holes
Fig. 2. Effect of clay content on the hydrocarbon saturation when Eq. (2) is
used to calculate it (re-plotted using the data provided in Al-Kharusi,
unpublished).
similar to the PNC and a gamma ray detector. The

remaining oil saturation is estimated using the following
equation:
So
C=Olog C=O100%water
C=O100%oil C=O100%water
The gamma radiation log is another log type used for

log-inject-log applications. In this process, water with
radioactive tracer is injected before and after removal of
residual oil.
Lately, Hlebszevitsch et al. (2003) and Gutierrez et al.
(2001) reported synthetic sonic log and cased-hole logging applications to assess the remaining oil saturation in
mature oil fields.
4.3. Volumetric-reservoir engineering studies
The remaining oil saturation is obtained by the following equation if the total amount of oil in place (Nfoi)
and the cumulative oil produced to the end of waterflooding (Np) is known:
Sor
N Np BoWF
7758Ah/
Prediction of Np is a critical task. One of the techniques used for this is the material balance equation:
Nfoi Bt Bti Wi Wp Bw Gi Bg
Np
Rp Rs Bg Bo
Bti
mBti
C
f Swi Cw DP Bgi Bg Bgi We
1Swi
Rp Rs Bg Bo
10
The material balance calculations based on this equation yield reliable results for the volumetric reservoirs.
4.4. Production data
Production history plot is another reliable source to
estimate the final production (Np). Graphical (Arps,
1945) and analytical (Fetkovich, 1987) techniques can
be applied to forecast the production data.
When multiphase production occurs from a well, the
saturations can be estimated using the production relative permeability data. The relative permeability ratio
can be obtained using
krw qw Bw lw
Bw lw
WOR
kro
qo Bo lo
Bo lo
11
225
if the flow rates are known. Oil saturation can be calculated by dividing the current reservoir volume of the oil
by the current pore volume:
So
Nfoi Np Bo
Vo
Vp Nfoi Boi 1 cf DP=1 Swi
12
Dependency on the real (measured) production data

makes these techniques reliable compared to the laboratory measurements.
4.5. Well testing
Permeability and relative permeabilities can be obtained from pressure transient data. If the relative permeability measurement through core analysis is available,
one can obtain the saturations using the relative permeability data. In addition, saturation can be estimated
through the following relationship if there is no free gas
in the system (Ramey, 1975).
So
ct cw cf
co cw
13
cf, co, and cw are the pore volume, water, and oil
compressibilities, respectively. The total compressibility,
ct, can be obtained from pressure transient analysis using
the following relationship (Earlougher, 1977):
ct
0:0002637k=lt DtM
/r2
tD =rD2 M
where the (k / )t is the total mobility defined as

!

kg
k
ko
kw
l t
lo
lw
lg
14
15
2
)M are the time and dimensionless time
tM and (tD / rD
values obtained from the type curve analysis. There are
also analytical and numerical modeling techniques to
estimate the waterflood performances but the accuracy of
the models strictly rely on the estimation of the Sor (or
relative permeabilities), which is based on core analysis.
4.6. Chemical tracers

When a chemical tracer is injected, its molecules are
locally distributed between water and oil in the reservoir
(Tomich et al., 1973). At the equilibrium, the thermodynamic equilibrium ratio, Ki is obtained as follows:
Ci oil
Ki
Ci water
16
226
The value of Ki can be measured in the laboratory.

The molecules of tracer i will move with a characteristic
velocity that depends on the fraction of time that the
molecules spend in each phase. If the probability of
finding a typical i molecule in the water phase is pi, then
the expected velocity of i molecule is
Vi pi Vw 1 pi Vo
17
Eq. (17) can be written in terms of the saturations as

follows:
Vi
1 So Vw Ki So Vo
1 So Ki So
18
The velocities are obtained from field experiments

and the Ki is measured in the laboratory (Eq. (16)). At
the residual oil saturation, oil velocity is zero. When
brine containing a tracer with known distribution coefficient, Ki is injected and the time for arrival to another
well is measured, one can obtain the residual oil saturation using
Vi
1 Sor Vw
1 Sor Ki Sor
19
Recently, Huseby et al. (2003) provided an experimental and numerical technique to estimate the location
and the size of bypassed and stagnant oil using geochemical data from produced oil and water.
Five techniques are used for residual oil saturation
determination as discussed above. Techniques such as
resistivity logs, nuclear magnetism logs and core analysis
require new wells drilled. Pulsed neutron logs and chemical tracer methods can be applied to old cased wells.
Elkins (1978) compiled the residual oil saturation
values obtained by different techniques for different formations in the US. Figs. 3 and 4 show the comparison of
different techniques. Based on this evaluation, the following conclusions can be reached regarding the residual
oil saturation (ROS) measurements:
ROS (core, log, tracer) b ROS (Material Balance)
ROS (PNC) = ROS (Resistivity logs)
ROS (Single well tracer) b (ROS (logs)
4.7. Field experiences
A challenging case of determination of remaining oil
saturation was reported by Akkurt et al. (2000). The
mature fractured-vuggy carbonate Yates field has
undergone many different EOR applications. Significant
variations in n (saturation exponent) and m (cementation

factor, between 1 and 5), yielding inaccurate estimation
of water saturation from Eq. (3), were observed with that
field. It was also observed that the n changes with space
and time and the surfactants used in the field altered the
wettability of the rock. Also, borehole was filled with
gas and electromagnetic propagation tools do not work
in gas. Therefore, NMR, which is insensitive to gas, was
suggested to measure the residual oil saturation. NMR
(limited to the invasion zone with a few inches depth of
investigation) is an alternative to resistivity saturation.
Oil and water can be identified by exploiting the diffusion coefficient (Do) contrast between them in NMR
applications. They compared the old resistivity saturation measurements to the new values obtained from the
NMR and noted that the resistivity based model is complex and requires a substantial level of petrophysical
expertise to implement while the NMR approach is relatively simpler.
Verma et al. (1991) compared residual oil saturations
obtained through special core analysis (SCAL), loginject-log, Thermal Decay Time (TDT) log, and material
balance for a carbonate reservoir. The values varied
between 5 and 40% for the field and 14 and 56% for the
lab measurements. The average value they found was
23.2%. They concluded that the most reliable results
were obtained from the SCAL with preserved cores.
Log-inject-log yielded reasonably good results while the
material balance provided a good cross check. They also
observed a strong dependency of residual oil saturation
after waterflood (SORW) on Swi and proposed the following correlation between these two quantities.
SORW
0:061 Sw
/
20
Elkins (1972) observed that the cores acquired from

unconsolidated sands may result in overestimation of
porosity and therefore the OOIP. They measured the
porosity from cores to be 39% through conventional
core analysis. The SCAL resulted in much lower
porosity (31%), which is in agreement with the log
porosities. They concluded that the actual oil recovery
efficiencies by waterflooding may have been much
higher than those reported. Hence, oil remaining in
place as a target for tertiary recovery may be much less
than what was estimated by conventional methods of
determining porosity and subtracting cumulative oil
production. Later Elkins and Poppe (1973) evaluated a
field case to estimate the residual oil saturation left for
the tertiary oil recovery. They reported that the reduction
in porosity due to compaction should be recognized
227
Fig. 3. Comparison of the residual oil saturations obtained through different techniques for sandstones (plotted using the data provided in Elkins,
1978).
and pressure coring is important in the evaluation of

unconsolidated field cases. Peripheral waterflooding
residual oil saturation for this field was less than predicted (Sor being not more than 25%) leaving this field a
marginal field for prospect tertiary oil recovery.
Tchambaz (2004) presented a new formation resistivity tool for the cased holes to measure the water
saturation in water injected zone as an alternative to
nuclear logging (TDT), which did not showed reliable
answers for a layered sandstone and a carbonate field in

Libya due to low salinity. He was successful in pointing
the location and amount of remaining oil (unswept by
water injected) comparing the first (uncased hole) and
the latest (cased hole, four years later) resistivity
measurements.
Another cased hole resistivity log measurement was
reported by Hupp et al. (2002). They proposed the
following equation as depletion indicator. Using this
Fig. 4. Comparison of the residual oil saturations obtained through different techniques for carbonates (plotted using the data provided in Elkins,
1978).
228
equation they located undepleted (or unswept) zones for

further treatment.
r
RtCH
21
CHFR Depletion Indicator
RtOH
where CH and OH denote the cased and open hole,
respectively. In addition to the resistivity application in the
cased hole, nuclear logging has been commonly applied to
determine the location and the amount of the remaining oil.
For nuclear logging, saturation monitoring through casing
is performed in two ways: (1) decay of thermal neutron
populations (TDT), and (2) relative amounts of carbon and
oxygen by inelastic gamma ray spectrometry (as used in
the Induced Gamma Ray Spectrometry tool GST). The
TDT provided better results in highly saline formation
waters. One should select the TDT and GST or combination depending on the salinity contrast and the level of
salinity (Schlumberger Wireline and Testing, 1993).
5. Tertiary recovery
The tertiary recovery aspects of mature field development will be evaluated for laboratory and field scale
developments. Taber et al. (1997a,b) classified different
enhanced (tertiary) oil recovery (EOR) techniques and
their selection criteria. In this section, the focus will be
on those tertiary recovery techniques typically applied
after massive water injection for pressure maintenance
or displacement. Therefore, the tertiary recovery of oil
involves in the displacement of oil in an environment
with excessive amount of water, in some cases occupying more pore space than oil within the rock. This
requires a clear understanding of the immiscible and
miscible displacement of residual oil while another
mobile phase exists as well as the three-phase relative
permeability concept. Jones (1985) observed that the time
required for a fluid particle to traverse a porous medium
depends on rock topology and fluid distribution. Oil
recovery by a miscible hydrocarbon (HC) solvent may be
quite incomplete when another phase (water) exists in the
system. HC can invade only the more accessible water
filled pores (high IFT between water and HC). He also
noted that the mixing zone is long in a water-wet core. HC
entrance into water filled small-pores takes time (overcoming the capillary entry pressure). Oil may not be displaced from the smaller pores.
5.1. Laboratory scale investigations
Fractured and non-fractured systems will be evaluated separately in this section. The applications of
immiscible (double displacement methods and inert gas)

and miscible (hydrocarbon gases and carbon dioxide)
gas injection, chemical injection (mainly surfactant
solutions), and air injection as tertiary recovery agents
will be reviewed.
5.1.1. Non-fractured rocks
Tertiary recovery applications largely studied at laboratory scale are immiscible and miscible gas injection,
chemical injection (surfactant, alkaline, and micellar
solutions), and air injection. Steam injection for tertiary
recovery is quite uncommon and it is mainly applied as a
secondary (or even primary) displacement method in
heavy-oil reservoirs.
5.1.2. Immiscible gas injection
Oren et al. (1992) studied the mobilization of residual
oil by immiscible gas injection under water-wet conditions using micro models. They observed that the recoveries for positive spreading systems are much higher
than for negative systems when the spreading coefficient, Sow is defined as follows:
Sow rwg rog row
22
They also noted that the oil is displaced by a doubledrainage mechanism (gas/oil and oil/water interface
movement) for both positive and negative spreading
systems and gas/water displacement is possible for negative spreading systems.
Kantzas et al. (1998a,b) studied downward displacement of oil by inert gas (nitrogen or air) injected at the
top of the formation using horizontal wells after waterflooding. They observed that the gravity assisted inert
gas injection has a potential to become an efficient EOR
method with up to 99% of remaining oil recovery from
unconsolidated samples. Later, Lepski et al. (1996)
showed that when the spreading coefficient (Eq. (22)) is
positive, oil tends to spread on water and form a continuous film. When it is negative, the residual oil tends
to coalesce and form blobs occupying several pore
spaces. They observed that if the gas injection process is
stopped after breakthrough and the system is shut off for
a few days and then water is injected, significant oil
production is obtained. The process of displacing the oil
bank by secondary waterflooding was named Second
Contact Water Displacement (SCWD).
Recently, Righi et al. (2004) showed that immiscible
water-alternating-gas (WAG) in watered-out cores
yielded additional recovery. They observed that additional 28% of the remaining oil could be recovered after
57% OOIP waterflooding recovery by immiscible WAG
from original sandstone reservoir cores with 18% porosity and 25300 mD permeability.
Babadagli et al. (2001) tested nitrogen injection
possibility to a tight unswept (as a secondary recovery
method) and high permeability watered-out sandstone (as a
tertiary recovery method) containing light-oil. The only
mechanism tested was the immiscible displacement of oil
by an inert gas. Secondary nitrogen recovery was
measured to be 3642% OOIP from 1 to 5 mD sandstone
cores. The tertiary recovery from 200 to 300 mD sandstone
rock with 70%75% previous waterflood recovery was 6
8% OOIP. High injection pressures were required in this
deep reservoir (3500 m) to overcome the reservoir pressure
and miscibility and double displacement are the other
possible recovery mechanisms to contribute to the
recovery at this pressure. Technical success did not
guarantee that the project would be economically viable
as will be discussed in the field case evaluations later.
5.2. Miscible gas injection
Typically HC gases (CH4 or liquefied petroleum
gases [LPG]), N2 and CO2 are used as tertiary recovery
agents. They are all multiple contact miscible except the
LPG. Above the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP),
the recovery would increase significantly. The miscible
residual oil saturation (Sorm) is a key property for simulation studies of gas injection. Typically, the capillary
number is used to determine the residual oil saturation.
This requires correct measurement of the IFT between
equilibrated phases. Lange (1998) observed that the
miscible and near-miscible residual oil saturation, Sorm
is a function of solubility parameters. They developed
the following correlation using the tertiary recovery of
eight different crude oils in carbonate and sandstone
cores with EOR gases:
Sorm 0:036jdoil dg j 0:029
23
The solubility parameters for crude oil and gas

(Gidding et al., 1968) are defined as follows:
doil 0:01M 6:54 0:01T 25
24
dg 0:326Pc 0:5 qr =qr liq
25
where M is oil average molecular weight and T is temperature. r(liq) is the reduced density of the gas compressed to a liquid state.
In many applications, the process might take place at
pressures slightly below the MMP because of the variation or reduction in the pressure. This pressure range that
does not develop complete miscibility is called near-
229
miscible zone. In this case, the recovery might be

significantly (negatively) affected. Eq. (23) covers both
miscible and near miscible conditions. Other factor that
might be effective on the recovery at near miscible pressure is the amount of existing water saturation. Wylie and
Mohanty (1996) reported that in the presence of water,
vertical mass transfer increases with gas solvent enrichment and the mass transfer is reduced in the presence of
water while the reduction is less as capillarity increases.
They also observed that the near-miscible gas floods do
not appear to be influenced by water saturation level.
Kasraie and Farouq Ali (1984) studied the effect of
second immobile phase on the dispersion during
miscible flooding. They observed that the dispersion
in a porous medium tends to decrease in the presence of
wetting immobile phase. The opposite was observed
when the immobile phase is non-wetting. They also
showed that the mixing coefficients are lower when an
immobile aqueous phase was present.
Shyeh-Yung (1991) studied decane/CO2/brine system
with Berea sandstone at near-miscible pressure range. He
showed that the tertiary oil recovery by CO2 flood
linearly decreases by decreasing pressure and CO2
mobility decreases with decreasing pressure near miscible conditions. He also observed that the secondary CO2
flood could recover more oil than tertiary CO2 flood.
One of the critical aspects of miscible flooding is the
effective use of WAG process. The optimization of this
process has been studied extensively in the past. Jackson
et al. (1985) observed that the optimum slug sizes are
0:1 (continuous slug process) and 1:1 for tertiary oil
recovery by CO2 injection for water-wet and oil-wet
systems, respectively. They noted that maximum
recovery is a stronger function of slug size in secondary
CO2 flood than in tertiary flooding. Tertiary floods in the
water-wet models were dominated by gravity forces
while tertiary floods in an oil-wet medium were controlled by viscous fingering. The effect of wettability on
the performance of WAG is crucial, especially at high
WAG ratios (Stern, 1991). High WAG ratios result in
less oil recovery by extraction. In water-wet rocks, this
effect is significant and no extraction at high WAG
ratios is observed. In mixed-wet rocks, however, significant oil recovery is obtained due to extraction regardless of WAG ratio.
Another critical aspect of WAG injection is to determine the best injection strategies to maximize the recovery. Srivastava et al. (1995) observed that the
secondary slug flood had the highest recovery efficiency
among the three possible injection strategies (secondary
slug, tertiary slug, and tertiary WAG) for the recovery of
14 API-heavy-oil. They also pointed out that the tertiary
230
WAG produced higher oil recovery than the tertiary slug.

Determination of the best strategy for the most efficient
displacement and minimum residual oil saturation is an
important issue in mature field development. Skipping the
secondary (waterflooding) recovery and starting directly
slug gas injection yielded much more efficient recovery
especially for live oil.
Krizmanic (2004a) reported optimum WAG injection
schemes for mature fields in Croatia and evaluated the
trapped gas saturation and waterflood residual oil
saturation for those cases (Krizmanic, 2004b).
5.3. Air injection
Although steam is not a favorable tertiary recovery
agent, air injection has been found an efficient one due to
its lower cost. Sakthikumar et al. (1995) compared the
performances of tertiary injection (after waterflooding)
of N2 and air injection into limestone and sandstone
samples containing light oil. Their laboratory experiments showed that the air injection recovery was 46.4%
whereas N2 injection yielded 43.2% oil recovery. Fassihi
et al. (1997) reported a field trial conducted upon
successful laboratory tests of air injection into light oil
reservoirs for tertiary recovery. They reported up to 14
16% OOIP incremental recovery from the field application after 515% primary recovery. Fassihi and Gillham
(1993) tested the DDP (double displacement process)
potential of air injection in the watered-out mature West
Hackberry field. They observed that the combustion will
occur at reservoir conditions and reservoir has sufficient
reservoir temperature to accelerate oxygen consumption.
5.4. Chemical injection
The most common chemical injection technique as a
tertiary oil recovery method is surfactant solution injection due to its relatively lower cost compared to the
micellar or microemulsion injection. Michels et al. (1996)
tested the tertiary recovery potential of a low concentration (0.1 wt.%) anionic surfactant. The tests on Berea
sandstone samples showed that 78% of the remaining oil
after waterflooding was recovered with the injection of
2.3 PV of surfactant solution. They also used a sacrificial
agent to minimize the surfactant retention and observed that an optimal value of the sacrificial agent exists.
Using the residual oil saturation value of 27.5% obtained
from core experiments, additional 9% OOIP recovery in
30 years was targeted. The efficiency and economics of
the project were tested for different optimal injection
operational plans. A different rock type (cleaned chalk
samples from the cores of the Yibal field in Oman) was
exposed to a similar tests by Babadagli et al. (2002).

Many different surfactant types were tested as tertiary
recovery agents at different concentrations after massive
waterflooding. An extra oil recovery of 0% to 7.5% was
obtained after waterflooding, which yielded an average
recovery value of 75% OOIP. The surfactant solution
injection into virgin core samples resulted in an average
value of 69% recovery, which was substantially lower
than that of waterflooding. This was attributed to the retention of surfactant during the flood in chalky limestone
samples. They concluded that surfactant concentration
and type play a primary role in the tertiary recovery of oil.
Another surfactant injection into light oil (3335 API)
sandstone reservoir was reported by Zaitoun et al. (2003).
Low concentration anionic surfactant solutions were injected into high salinity core samples to formulate the field
injection plan. They observed 36% OOIP recovery after
waterflooding.
Clark et al. (1988) studied the performance of a
cosurfactant enhanced polymer flood (alkalinesurfactantpolymer) in Berea sandstone. An average of 23%
OOIP incremental recovery was obtained after 36%
waterflooding recovery with different formulations.
Microbial injection has been also proposed as a tertiary recovery (Almeida et al., 2004) as well as water
conformance (Stepp et al., 1996) technique to develop
mature oil fields.
Obviously, laboratory scale work is needed to
formulate the optimal design of any tertiary injection
project. Especially, the estimation of the incremental oil
recovery and compatibility of the recovery agent with the
rock, oil and formation water are two essential factors to
be determined from the laboratory scale tests. Field scale
simulations are needed for further performance estimation. The following are the key issues to be considered in
these practices:
The right time to start tertiary oil recovery. The
amount of immobile water from secondary
recovery might significantly affect the efficiency of
tertiary recovery.
Injection strategy to be followed (slug sizes are critical not only for the technical success but also for the
economical viability of the project).
Optimal injection scheme.
The ultimate goal (is it faster accelerated recovery
or higher ultimate recovery?). The company size and
long-term policies are critical in this decision and the
mature field development plan through enhanced oil
recovery should be determined based on the short-midand long-term plans of the companies. This will be
discussed later in the Field scale applications section.
The laboratory experiments provide answers to these

questions partly. Upscaling this information to field
cases is an important issue (Christman and Gorell,
1990). It is highly difficult to determine the economics
of the project from the laboratory tests without field
scale simulation study but the laboratory data provide an
insight into the residual oil saturation.
5.5. Fractured rocks
Main recovery mechanism from NFR involves
matrixfracture interaction due to capillary, gravity, and
viscous forces as well as mass transfer. Significant effort
has been devoted to the primary and secondary recovery
from matrix since the 1950s. Morrow and Mason (2001)
and Babadagli (2003a) provided a review of the primary
and secondary matrix recovery mechanisms. Tertiary
recovery of matrix oil requires more efforts towards the
understanding the physics of the process.
Three types of agents have been tested in the laboratory environment for tertiary recovery of oil from the
matrix. They are namely hot water or steam, surfactant
solutions and miscible fluids (solvents).
Babadagli (2001) exposed sandstone and limestone
cores to static (capillary) brine imbibition first and then
hot water. It was observed that starting the process with
water and continuing with hot water (up to 90C) would
yield higher ultimate recovery than exposing the core to
low IFT surfactant solutions from the beginning. Water +
hot water combination could potentially be more
economic than chemical injection for water-wet samples.
Depending on the matrix interaction type (co- or counter
current) determined by the matrix boundary conditions
(all sides open matrix or matrix partially exposed to
water imbibition), hot water imbibition following water
imbibition showed different recovery performances. If
the oil is recovered from a matrix that is not open to flow
from all sides, the oil recovery is not only due to thermal
expansion but also enhanced imbibition or even gravity
drainage for sandstone (strongly water-wet) rocks.
Recovery after waterflooding from a rock sample all
sides open to flow could be limited to thermal expansion
of oil only. If unfavorable matrix boundary conditions
exist, hot water injection after fully completed water
injection is a technically successful process.
Guo et al. (1998) exposed the siltstone core plugs,
obtained from the Spraberry Trend Area and saturated
with original reservoir oil ( 1 cp), exposed to water
imbibition. They observed that starting the experiment
at room temperature would not yield any imbibition
recovery whereas experiments conducted at 138 F from
the beginning showed 2025% OOIP recovery. This is
231
above the recovery that could possibly be recovered by

thermal expansion (Briggs et al., 1992; Babadagli,
1996). Other mechanisms, such as augmented capillary
imbibition by reduced interfacial tension and changes in
the wettability, contributed to the recovery. When the
temperature is increased from the room temperature that
resulted in no recovery, 79% OOIP oil recovery was
obtained. This is typically the recovery by thermal expansion. Therefore, starting the process with hot water is
a technically more feasible than starting with water followed by hot water injection.
Sahuquet and Ferrier (1982) tested the performance
of secondary and tertiary (water injection followed by
steam) steam injection into fractured dolomitic carbonate rock from the Lacq Superieur field. The dominating
recovery mechanism was capillary imbibition. Oil
viscosity was 17.5 cp. Water imbibition at 60 C yielded
15% OOIP recovery. Steam injection at 150 C following the water injection gave additional 14% recovery. When the process is started as steam injection at
290 C, the total recovery reached 70% OOIP with a
much faster recovery rate than the lower temperature
experiment. Hallenbeck et al. (1991) performed similar
experiments on North Sea Chalk (Ekofisk field) samples
using 33 API original crude oil. They observed 32%
OOIP recovery by water imbibition at room temperature. When the experiment was continued at increased
pressure and temperature (300 psi and 270 F), they
obtained additional 14% OOIP recovery. This was a
corrected value to thermal expansion. Therefore, the
additional recovery is mainly due to enhanced capillary
imbibition as well as other potential matrix-fracture interaction processes except expansion.
It can be concluded that it is reasonable to start with
hot water or steam injection rather than waterflooding in
weakly water-wet systems for a faster recovery and less
residual matrix oil saturation. For strongly water-wet
systems, however, the hot water injection after waterflooding would yield mainly thermal expansion of
residual-waterflood-oil. Note that starting the process
with hot water injection would yield the same ultimate
recovery but faster recovery rate (Babadagli, 2002).
Dilute surfactant injection studies were also conducted
for tertiary recovery. Babadagli (2003b) observed no capillary imbibition recovery from Berea sandstone matrix
with different non-ionic surfactant solutions after brine
imbibition that yielded 4560% OOIP recovery. He used
mineral and light crude oil. Cuiec et al. (1994) obtained
additional 20% OOIP recovery with lowered IFT using
surfactant solutions (1.5 mN/m) after brine (41 mN/m)
imbibition recovery of 52% OOIP on chalk samples
saturated with n-C6.
232
Standnes and Austad (2000) tested the capillary

imbibition recovery on dolomitic samples. Without any
surfactant addition, no recovery was obtained after exposing the rock to brine for several weeks. When a 1 wt.%
cationic surfactant was added to the brine, 60% of OOIP
was recovered. This amount corresponds to the recovery
obtained from the capillary imbibition experiments started
with the same surfactant solution. Experiments on oil-wet
west Texas carbonates showed that only 4% OOIP oil is
recovered by brine imbibition (Standnes et al., 2002).
Addition of an anionic surfactant (ethoxylated alcohol)
yielded an additional 3% OOIP recovery. When a cationic
surfactant (C12 TAB, 3.5 wt.% below CMC) is used
instead of the anionic one, 40% OOIP additional recovery
was obtained. Nearly-oil-wet chalk samples showed 12%
OOIP primary oil recovery with brine imbibition (Austad
and Milter, 1997). When the same cationic surfactant was
added at 1 wt.% concentration, 30% OOIP incremental
oil recovery was obtained. If the same experiment is
started with the surfactant solution (C12 TAB), 65%
OOIP is recovered at a much higher rate. Later, Austad
and Standnes (2003) observed that dolomitic oil-wet
reservoir rocks yielded no capillary imbibition recovery
with brine. If the experiment is continued with a 1%
cationic surfactant (C12 TAB), nearly 60% OOIP recovery was achieved. When the same surfactant solution
was used without exposing the rock to the brine
imbibition first, the same recovery was reached at faster
recovery rate. They also observed that the performance of
an anionic surfactant with dolomitic oil-wet samples was
much lower (35% of OOIP) than that of cationic surfactants (65% of OOIP). Standnes and Austad (2003) also
tested C12TAB on the dolomitic samples exposed initially to a complete brine imbibition at 20 C and 70 C.
Initial brine and secondary surfactant solution imbibition
recoveries are summarized in Table 2. This indicates
significant tertiary recovery potential of capillary imbibition when the injected water is replaced by low IFT
(surfactant added) water. It should be noted, however, that
starting the injection with surfactant solution might be
more economical considering the increasing recovery rate
as well as potentially higher ultimate recovery.
In a similar attempt, Xie et al. (1998) performed
capillary imbibition experiments on the cores obtained
from shallow-shelf carbonate reservoirs. Field production performance showed a recovery of less than 10%
OOIP. Brine imbibition recovery was obtained between
0% and 35% OOIP. Imbibition recoveries of a cationic
(cocoalkyltrimethyl ammonium chloride 0.3 mN/m)
and a non-ionic (ethoxylated alcoholpoly oxyethylene
alcohol 2 mN/m) surfactant solutions were then tested
on the cores exposed primarily to brine imbibition.
All surfactants were around the CMC (low concentration). Additional 5%15% OOIP recovery was
obtained mainly due to improved imbibition driven by
wettability change. They also tested the effect of initial
water saturation on the performance and observed that
the existence of initial water saturation causes higher
ultimate recovery from the surfactant solution imbibition. The existence (Weisbord et al., 2002; Babadagli,
2003c) and amount (Li et al., 2002) of initial water
saturation are critical on the recovery and there would be
considerable amount of water left from primary and
secondary recovery applications in the matrix. These
observations showed that additional recovery with surfactant solutions is a possibility after completed imbibition recovery with brine. The amount depends on the
rock type and selection of compatible surfactant type.
Especially, the tertiary recovery potential of surfactant
solution in carbonates is significant.
A few studies on the tertiary recovery from matrix by
solvent injection were reported. Hatiboglu and Babadagli (2004) tested the recovery potential of solvent (nheptane) diffusion on Berea sandstone cores exposed to
complete brine imbibition. They obtained 42%55%
OOIP co- and counter-current capillary imbibition recovery with brine for different matrix shape factor (length
to diameter ratio). Additional solvent (n-heptane) recovery by diffusion followed by the capillary imbibition
varied between 2% and 20% OOIP depending on the
matrix shape factor. When the same cores were exposed
to the solvent diffusion without primary water imbibition,
the ultimate recovery was obtained as much higher than
the total of primary imbibition and secondary solvent
diffusion for all cases. When the total recovery time was
considered in the process, the imbibition followed by the
diffusion scheme yielded more efficient process. It is
obvious that this would be an economically favorable
process as well. When a similar process was repeated
using Indiana limestone (less water-wet sample than
Berea sandstone), the diffusion process turned out to be
more favorable as the imbibition recovery is not as
Table 2
Primary brine, and secondary and tertiary surfactant solution imbibition
recoveries from dolomite (data from Standnes and Austad, 2003)
Core
no.
Primary rec.
with brine
(% OOIP)
at 70 C
Additional
secondary rec.
with C10 NH2
(% OOIP) at 70 C
Additional tertiary k
rec. with C10 NH2 (mD)
(% OOIP)
at 20 C
1
2
3
15
8
7
28
5
1
5
57
44
22
352
101
effective as in the water-wet sandstone case (Hatiboglu

and Babadagli, 2005), especially for heavier oils.
Svec and Grigg (2000) studied the additional recovery potential of CO2 injection into pre-waterflooded
fractured core samples from the Blinebry formation (New
Mexico). Three mixed- and oil-wet samples yielded 17%,
41%, and 51% OOIP primary recovery from waterflooding
(mainly imbibition). When the same samples were exposed to CO2 injection, 40%, 35%, and 32% OOIP additional recoveries were obtained, respectively.
Hamida and Babadagli reported that tertiary (Hamida
and Babadagli, 2005a) and secondary (Hamida and
Babadagli, 2005b) capillary imbibition oil recovery
potential under ultrasonic radiation exists for sandstone
(strongly water-wet) and carbonate (weakly water-wet)
rocks exposed to primary water imbibition. The laboratory scale recovery potential and mechanisms are yet to
be clarified for the tertiary recovery potential of the
ultrasonic waves. Field scale applications need further
technological development for this relatively less cost
technique.
In summary, water injection continued by chemical,
thermal or solvent injection is an efficient process for
strongly water-wet and light oil systems. But, if there is no
capillary imbibition potential like carbonate rocks and
heavy-oil cases, it is reasonable to start the project with the
tertiary recovery agents such as steam/hot water, surfactant solutions, or solvents rather than waterflooding which
yields a remarkably slow capillary imbibition recovery or
gravity drainage.
Field trials of the applications outlined above are
limited and the economic viability of these applications
is a concern mainly due to early breakthrough risk
caused by fractures. Experimental studies are the only
solutions for the assessment of the recovery potential of
the tertiary recovery applications outlined above as the
numerical models are yet limited to do this due to difficulties in modeling matrixfracture interactions and
representing the complex fracture networks.
6. Field scale applications
Despite their technical feasibility (effectiveness) as
discussed in the previous sections, in many circumstances, the economics of tertiary recovery field applications does not permit to choose this option as a
mature field development plan. Careful analysis of economic feasibility (efficiency) of the tertiary recovery
applications (mainly thermal, chemical, and solvent
injection due to their high CAPEX and OPEX) is needed
with minimized uncertainty (McCarthy et al., 1981;
Baviere et al., 1994; Suguchev et al., 1999). The advan-
233
tageous part of the development of mature fields through

tertiary oil recovery is the data, information and experience gathered throughout the production life that
would significantly minimize the geological or technical
uncertainties. The uncertainty in oil prices is the major
factor that affects the applications of tertiary recovery
projects (Taber et al., 1997b; Stosur, 2003). The following
points should be taken into consideration during the
planning of a tertiary recovery application to develop a
mature field:
The effectiveness of the project, i.e., the total incremental oil recovery by tertiary methods.
The efficiency of the process: Total cost/total recovery.
In the secondary recovery applications, the expected
ultimate recovery is generally higher and the total cost
of the project is lower than those of tertiary recovery
applications. Blackwell (1978) stated that the tertiary
recovery economics is sensitive to the remaining oil.
Precise knowledge of the distribution of the remaining
oil is a critical prerequisite in selection, design and
evaluation of any tertiary recovery application. Therefore, the amount of target oil and the reserves should be
defined accurately. Although an error of 10% PV in the
remaining oil saturation can be tolerated in primary and
secondary recovery decisions, an error as small as 5%
PV can lead to economic failures in tertiary oil recovery. Blackwell concluded that a 1% change in the
estimation of the remaining oil (or target oil for tertiary
recovery) might lead to a 1.5% increase or decrease in
the rate of return. Schumacher (1980) evaluated 136
field cases of tertiary oil recovery applications. He
observed that the gas injection projects (CO2 and
miscible gas) had the highest amount of remaining oil
saturation (73%85%). The second tertiary recovery
technique was the thermal methods (in-situ combustion
and steam injection) averaging a value of 65% residual
oil saturation in the beginning of the project. For
chemical methods (surfactant and polymer injection),
the residual oil saturations varied between 37% and
54%.
Recovery time and management strategies for different size companies: Depending on the company
size, the mature field development strategies through
tertiary oil recovery change. Due to high risk factors,
small companies avoid investment-intensive longterm projects. They mainly pay attention to the faster
recovery rather than ultimate recovery. Big size
companies may target higher ultimate recovery as
they can afford long-term investments. This will be
discussed with two field examples in the Reservoir
management practices section later.
234
The sample field cases selected to represent different

tertiary recovery methods and field types are summarized in Tables 3, 4 and 5, for gas, chemical, and thermal
injection applications, respectively. The most common
tertiary recovery application item is obviously the gas
(miscible or immiscible) injection. All the applications
listed in Table 3 were performed after certain degrees of
waterflooding. The projects were all successful with
some incremental oil. The sweep efficiency is related to
WAG ratios. The economics of the project is also controlled by the WAG ratio as it reduces the amount of
expensive tertiary recovery gas. Winzinger et al. (1991)
tested the effect of different WAG ratios on the incremental recovery for CO2 injection. They observed that
0:1 (continuous CO2) and 1:1 WAG ratios yielded similar tertiary oil recovery (1416%) from the carbonate
core samples of the North Ward Estes field. Due to the
cost of the project, 1:1 ratio turned out to be optimum
ratio. 2:1 WAG ratio yielded 13% recovery. This ratio is
to be determined by the core flood tests before the field
trials. In the Comments column of Table 3, the core
results were added if there were any.
Likewise, the slug sizes are important in optimizing
the chemical injection processes (Table 4) (Fathi and
Ramirez, 1984, 1986). Continuous injection of chemicals might cause higher cost and/or lower sweep and
therefore, injection of the agents as slugs is necessary for
an efficient process. Thomas et al. (1990) injected
micellar slugs into waterflooded Berea samples with
35% residual oil saturation. A linear relationship between the slug size (PV) and tertiary oil recovery (% OOIP)
was observed. Higher amount of oil and surfactant concentration in the micellar (oil + water+ surfactant + IPA)
resulted in higher recovery up to 45% of the residual oil
(with 10 PV slugs).
Continuous injection of low surfactant concentration
solution was also observed as an effective process.
Maerker and Gale (1992) conducted surfactant solution
experiments on sandstone samples. The residual oil (5
7 cp) saturation after waterflooding was between 30%
and 38% OOIP. The recovery by surfactant solution
injection varied between 20% and 75% of the residual
oil. Babadagli et al. (2002) reported results for a similar
oil with chalk samples. The average waterflooding
saturation was 75% of OOIP. The tertiary recovery with
different type surfactant solutions yielded additional
0%7.5% OOIP.
Wyatt et al.'s (2004) radial core flood tests resulted in
additional 9% OOIP recovery by polymer flood after
waterflooding which recovered 30% OOIP from a sandstone sample. In another attempt, they obtained 52%
OOIP recovery from the waterflooding and additional
20% OOIP recovery from the following polymer flood

(Wyatt et al., 2002). Alkalinepolymer mixture yielded
additional 26% OOIP recovery after a waterflooding
performance that resulted in 48% OOIP recovery.
All these attempts were needed to assess the field
performance and the economics of the projects. The
estimation of the optimum chemical concentrations and
slug sizes as well as the chemical retention is mainly based
on these types of laboratory tests (Barua et al., 1986;
Jakobsen and Hovland, 1994; Baviere et al., 1994).
Tertiary recovery attempts using thermal techniques
were not common as inferred by Table 5. Excessive cost
limits their use to develop mature fields depleted to
secondary residual oil saturation. Sakthikumar et al.
(1995) performed waterflooding test on a sandstone
sample saturated with light oil and obtained 58% OOIP
recovery. A subsequent air injection yielded additional
5.7% OOIP recovery. Recoveries lower than waterflooding performance were obtained when air was injected
into a virgin core.
Babadagli et al. (2001) searched the possibility of air
injection instead of more expensive nitrogen for tertiary
recovery of light oil from a sandstone reservoir. Due to
its low cost and higher recovery potential (by thermal
effects), air injection has turned out to be a more favorable tertiary recovery method for a small size company.
However, its potential danger in the production wells
caused by the unconsumed oxygen and pressure required to inject the air into deep formation limit its use
for this light oil sandstone reservoir. Steam injection is
typically secondary or even primary recovery agent,
which is more useful for heavy-oil reservoirs, rather than
tertiary recovery in mature fields due to its high cost
(Schumacher, 1980).
7. Reservoir management practices
In addition to tertiary oil recovery applications, other
types of reservoir management practices to develop
mature oil fields were also proposed and implemented.
They include data acquisition/analysis campaigns for
reservoir simulation to re-evaluate the remaining
reserves (Murty and Al-Haddad, 2003; Mijnssen et al.,
2003) or revisiting/recompletion the wells (Pang and
Faehrmann, 1993), re-engineering using classic reservoir engineering analysis techniques and clustering the
wells based on their performances (Coste and Valois,
2000; Marquez et al., 2001). Another cost effective
reservoir development practice was to improve the
volumetric sweep efficiency through the realignment of
the injection and production wells (Zambrano et al.,
1992). Surveillance of the secondary and tertiary
Table 3
A summary of tertiary gas injection applications reported
Field
(discovery year)
OOIP
Ekofisk (1969)
6.7 billion bbl
North Ward Estes

(1929)
North Ward Estes
(1929)
Handil (1975)
1.1 billion bbl
Kelly-Snyder (1948)
2.11 MM bbl
South Ward (1933)
8.8 MM bbl
Phegly Unit (1955)
9.6 MM bbl
0.3 billion OOIP
Mitsue Gilwood Unit 770 MM bbl

(1964)
Brookhaven (1943)
Little Creek (1958)
102 MM stb
Jay/LEC (1970)
728 MM bbl
Garber (1916)
Offshore Abu Dhabi
Wasson (1935)
East Vacuum
Grayburg San
Andreas (1938)
260 MM stb
(inject. area)
Formation type/
permeability
oil/API
Recovery history
(starting year)
Miscible acid
gas-(1976) pilot
CO2 (1974)
field scale
Misc. CO2 (2000)
field scale
Miscible nitrogen
Carbonate 6.4 mD
1.38 cp
Sandstone 32 mD
1.5 cp
WF (1972), AG (1976),
CG (1978) WF (1982)
WF (1963) CO2 (1974)
16.4 % OOIP
(prim. + sec.)
WF (1960s)
Ult. sec. rec. 2535%
Fractured carbonate
1100 mD
Highly fractured
chalk 0.110
(matrix) 200 (fracture)
CO2 (1989) field scale Sandstone/
siltstone 15 mD
CO2 foam
(1989) field scale
Lean gas (immiscible) Sandstone 102000 mD
field scale (1995)
CO2 WAG (1972) Limestone 20 mD
full field
Propane slug (misc.) Sandstone 40300 mD
pilot (1961)
LPG slug (1964)
Sandstone 0.6610 mD
full field
ave: 168 mD
Solution gas enriched Sandstone 64250 mD
with LPG
Gas + water (1965)
Sandstone 56 mD
full field
0.5 cp
33 API
WF (1986) pilot
(Ekofisk form.) full field
(Tor form.)
14 cp 37 API WF (1955)
0.61 cp
3134 API
0.35 cp
3.4 cp
2.3 cp
2640 API
CO2 full field (quarter Sandstone 33 mD

9-spot) (1974)
Miscible N2 (1981)
Deep carbonate 3 mD
0.4 cp
CO2 5-spot
pilot (1981)
Immiscible gas (1997)
full field
CO2 continuous layer
WAG-1981
47 API
CO2WAG1985
(WAG = 2:1)
Limestone
0.18 cp
Primary and
secondary recovery
Carbonates (grainstone
and packstone) (11 mD)
1 cp 38 API
18% OOIP79 15% OOIP80

(95,680 stb)
Significant recovery
was observed
10% OOIP (estimated)
Incremental rec. was

difficult to determine
Ref.
Schiltz et al., 1984;

Rowe et al., 1982
Schiltz et al., 1984
Baker and Kuppe, 2000
2.561% OOIP WF
recovery from lab tests
Thomas et al., 1991
38.7 % OOIP
Opt. WAG = 1:1, opt.

slug size: 3860% PV
Heterogeneous res.
(poor sweep)
Core flooding: 27% WF,
3% tertiary
CO2 WAG 6% HCPV CO2
and 2.8% HCPV water
ROS after WF: 18.7% (core)
19.3% (volum.) 19.6 (logs)
ROS after WF: 25%
Ring and Smith, 1995
4.3% OOIP
Some incremental
rec. observed
Peripheral
58% OOIP (in 1.5
1.2% OOIP (3 yr inj.) 7.4%
water injection
of the field)
(next 20 yr)
Centerline WF (1954)
Earlier est.: 23% OOIP
later est. 8% OOIP
WF (1950)
16% OOIP (primary) 47% 37,000 bbl in 2 years
OOIP (secondary)
WF 5-spot pattern (1959) Pr. 21.4% OOIP Se. 20% 3.4% OOIP
OOIP (19591964)
(1964 and 1971)
Peripheral water
Pr.: 1.7% OOIP Se. (WF): Estimated 12.2% OOIP
injection (1968)
45% OOIP
Gas injection (1948)
5 MM bbl (half
watergas
of the residual oil)
produced (1957)
Peripheral water
Pr. + Se.: 54% OOIP
Pilot: 122,200 bbls
injection (19621970)
(21% OOIP by WF)
between 1973 and 77
WF (1974)
Target was 346373 MM Target: 47 MM bbl
bbl (51% OOIP)
(6.5% OOIP)
WF (1948)
Comments
24% OOIP (Pr. and

Under consideration
gas inj.) 5.5% OOIP (WF)
84 MM bbl (prim.
and second)
Carbonate
Carbonates (wackestone
packstone) 510 mD
Incremental tertiary
recovery
70,000 bbl (1984)

11% OOIP in pilot area
Initial target 2% OOIP
Peripheral water
injection (1964)
35% OOIP (Pr. + Se.)
15% OOIP97 14.2 MM bbl

(19832000) by infill99
WF (1958)
(80 acre 9-spot)
2130 MM stb (811%

OOIP) infill only: 1.5% OOIP
Core data: 58%

WF + 2636% solvent
Chou et al., 1992

Gunawan and Caie, 2001
Kane, 1999
Blanton et al., 1970
Connally, 1972
Frimodig et al., 1988
Meltzer, 1974
Hansen, 1977
2.9% OOIP (1981 and 8492)
2 MM bbl (1984)93 710%
OOIP (2002)94
Core: WF: 2435% CO2: 2
21% (with increasing pressure)
Lab: 17% OOIP tertiary
immisc. gas inj.
Irregular pattern not suitable
for CO2, converted to 9-spot98
Christian et al., 1981;

Langston and Shirer, 1983;
Lawrence et al., 2002
Kumar and Eibeck, 1984
Bonnin et al., 2002
Tanner et al., 1992;
Fox et al., 1994; Thai
et al., 2000
Harpole and
Hallenbeck, 1996
Slaughter Estate Unit 0.65 MMstb

(1937)
Twofreds (Delaware) 51 MM stb
Unit (1957)
Weyburn (1956)
1.4 billion bbl
Injected fluid
(year started)
WF: Waterflooding, ROS: Residual Oil Saturation, OOIP: Original Oil In-Place, Pr.: Primary, Se.: Secondary, Te.: Tertiary, AC: Acid Gas, CH: Chase Gas.
235
236
Table 4
A summary of tertiary chemical injection applications reported

Injected fluid (year started)
Formation type/ oil/API

permeability
Whittier (1966)
Caustic (1966)
320495 mD
40 cp 20 API WF (1968)
Bradford
Micellar slugs (petroleum

sulfonates + cosurf. + polym.)
field scale
Microemulsion (corefloods only,
no field trials)
Polymer flood (1975)
Sandstone
siltstone
(82 mD)
Sandstone
5 cp 45 API
Loudon
Oerrel (1954)
Hankensbuettel
Polymer flood (1977)
(1958)
3
Marmul (1956) 390 MM m Polymer flood pilot
(5-spot) (1986)
Glenn Pool
(1905)
Big Muddy
Pownall Ranch
(1974)
11.5 MM bbl Surfactant injection (sulfonate +

two alcohols) (1982)
Low IFT (sodium petr. sulfonate)
followed by 50% PV polymer
(19731978) 5-spot
pilot (one producer)
Alkali-surfactant (1996)
Tanner
2.6 MM bbl
Minnelusa B
Saertu Sand
Rapdan Pool
(1955)
David Pool
(1970)
Daqing
Bell Creek
North Burbank
Robinson M-1
Manvel
Alkali + surfactant + polymer

(20002002)
pilot \ 4 injectors (1994)
Polymer (1985)
Alkalinepolymer (1987)

four inverted 5-spot (1994)
0.15 MM bbl Micellar-polymer (oil soluble
pet. sulfonate) (19791984)
5-spot pattern
1.4 MM bbl Micellar-polymer (sulfonate)
9, 5-spot pattern
4.24 MM bbl Micellar-polymer (sulfonate)
(1977) field scale
Micellar-polymer (sulfonate)
2 inj., 3 prod.
Recovery history Primary and secondary

(starting year)
recovery
Secondary (WF)
was weak
Sandstone
67 cp 39 API Pr.: 13 yr
Se.: 38 yr
2.2 cp 38 API
50% OOIP (Pr. +

Se. in the field)
19.5% OOIP (Pr. + Se.)
Sandstone
2.2 cp 38 API
High perm sand 80 cp

(up to 10D)
Sandstone
(150 mD)
Sandstone
(52 mD)
Sandstone
(20 mD)
4 cp 37 API
WF (1950)
4 cp 35 API
WF (1953)
8 cp 26 API
WF (1984)
11 cp 21 API
WF
Sandstone
WF
Model study: Pr.:

2030% (WF) Se.:
2530% (polym.)
70% (Pr. + Se.)
In the pilot test area:
68% OOIP
Oil cut was 43%

when ASP started
Oil cut increased from
17% to 48% after WF
WF (1962)
recovery
Comments
Ref.
350,000470,000
stb (by 1973)
Average 57%
IFT reduced from

20 to 0.002 dyne/cm
Oil saturation after
WF: 2835%
Graue and Johnson,

1974
Danielson et al.,
1976
Rec. from cores:

2075% of ROS
Final predicted
value 28%
Maerker and Gale,

1992
Maitim and Volz,
1981
Maitim and Volz,
1981
Koning et al., 1988
1.14 MM bbl (10%

OOIP) (19791992)
14,382 bbl
Largest amount
of surf. rec.
(1032 preflush,
13,350 Te.)
Bae, 1995
Oil rate increased from

9000 to 12,500
bbl/month
Injection rate
Wyatt et al., 2002
increased from
12,000 to 17,500
bbl/m after chemicals
Wyatt et al., 2002
20% OOIP
12.5 % OOIP
(predicted)
59% OOIP in
the pilot area
33,000 m3 (31% OOIP)

65,000 bbls
incremental oil
Estimated 15% OOIP
Saad et al., 1989
Wyatt et al., 2002

Wyatt et al., 2004
34% primary 15% WF
Pilot: 41% OOIP

core: 39% OOIP
Pilot area: 52% OOIP
Lab: cum oil was
(Pr. and Se.) 22%
74% OOIP (24%
OOIP Te. polymer
from Te. polymer)
Total prod. (Pr. + Se. + Te.) Te.: 31% in the
49% OOIP
pilot area
19%
25% (primary) 6% (WF)
19%
6 cp 36 API
60%
20% of remaining 40%
4 cp 29 API
70%
44% of remaining
30% oil
Sandstone
(1.4 D)
34 cp 23 API WF (1978)
Primary: 5.3% OOIP

WF: 18.1 % OOIP
Sandstone
(1.4 D)
Sandstone
(1 D)
11.5 cp
35 API
3 cp 32 API
WF
WF: 21.3% OOIP
Sandstone
(50 mD)
Sandstone
(103 mD)
Sandstone
(500 mD)
3 cp 39 API
WF (1954)
Wyatt et al., 2004
Wyatt et al., 2004

Field
OOIP
(discovery year)
237
Table 5
A summary of tertiary thermal injection applications reported
Field
OOIP Injected fluid Formation
oil Recovery Primary and
(discovery
(year started) type/
API
history
secondary
year)
permeability
recovery
Field H
(1994)
Air
Loco
Field
Hot water
pilot-inverted
5-spot
(196162)
Air injection Deep
(1985)
carbonate
(130 mD)
Medicine
Pole
Hills
(1967)
600 cp
WF
39API
recovery
Pr. + Se. (WF)

Additional rec. =
produced 93% of 200,000 stb (in 1 yr)
the reserve
400,000 stb after 3 yr
Total recovery was
4000 bbl
Comments
Ref.
Core tests: 31%

OOIP WF 6%
OOIP air
Water injectivity
increased 200
400%
Sakthikumar
et al. 1995
Pr. rec. est.: 15% As of 1995 increm. oil:

OOIP
1 MM bbl (2.5% OOIP)
Martin et al.,
1968
Kumar et al.,
1995
WF: Waterflooding, ROS: Residual Oil Sat., OOIP: Original Oil In-Place, Pr.: Primary, Se.: Secondary, Te.: Tertiary.
recovery through performance monitoring, data acquisition and vertical conformance monitoring was
reported to be an effective management strategy for
mature fields (Stiles and Magruder, 1995).
Reservoir characterization attempts for developing
mature fields are also applied commonly. Seismic
studies were performed to reduce the uncertainties on
the structure (Lantz and Ali, 1991; Pauzi et al., 2000)
and locate the remaining oil (Lantz and Ali, 1991;
Reymond et al., 1999; Pauzi et al., 2000) to develop
different size mature fields. Reservoir simulation is
generally used to assess the field potential for any development plan and reserves booking studies for the
remaining oil (Blaskovich et al., 1985; Van de Leemput
et al., 1997). This requires an accurate description of the
reservoir. Campanella (2002) introduced a 60-year old
field case with limited or low quality log and core data.
Though the experience gained over decades is valuable
in the development of mature fields, the data quality and
lack of information could be problem, especially for old
fields. They suggested that the data integration should
be implemented as early as possible. Two recent studies
discussed the importance of advanced reservoir characterization techniques on the reactivation of two highly
heterogenous mature fields, namely the Womack Hill
(Mancini et al., 2004) and the Budare (Hamilton et al.,
2002).
The management strategies to follow in the development of mature assets are also dependent on the size
of the company. Long-term plans and investments on
mature fields are highly difficult to make for small size
companies. For comparison, two extreme mature field
cases will be discussed here. The Yibal field, a fractured
chalky-carbonate with light oil, has been the most
prolific field in Oman over three decades. This field is a
good example of a big-mature-field operated by a big

company. At different stages of the production life,
different development plans were tested and implemented. The field went through primary depletion (1969
1972), water injection (19721981), aquifer injection
(19811993), and intensive horizontal infill (1993
2001) (Mijnssen et al., 2003). A large scale simulation
of waterflooding was performed to assess the secondary
recovery performance in 1972 (several years after its
discovery) (Grant, 1981). In 1989, an appraisal strategy
consisting of the evaluation of the liquid-gas handling
facilities, appraisal drilling, and western area development was developed. It was concluded that the initial
conceptual reservoir model might not be representative
for the total structure (Bos, 1989). Eckford (1999)
proposed an optimal plan for the surface facilities to
prepare the field for the next 30 years. Recently, AlMugheiry et al. (2001) analyzed the field's 30 year
performance to propose a new injection plan and locate
the mobile oil-in-place. They created a voidage map
after an extensive pressure surveillance for the new
injectors. As seen the field went through many different
stages of development and currently reached its maturity
with significantly increasing WOR. Recently, Mijnssen
et al. (2003) evaluated different development opportunities including a revision of large amount of data
collected so far for sector and full field modeling. The
final stage of the field development would be an EOR
application. Due to carbonaceous and fractured nature of
the field, options were limited. Aqueous surfactant
injection potential was tested by Babadagli et al. (2002).
They observed that the average waterflooding performance of the chalk samples with the original Yibal oil
recovery was 75% OOIP. Many different surfactant
types and concentrations were tested on waterflooded
238
cores and the tertiary recovery potential was found to be

07.5%. It has been observed that some parts of the field
were not touched mainly due to the heterogeneous
structure of the field. Therefore, the low IFT waterflooding performance was tested as a secondary recovery technique rather than tertiary. It was observed
that the average recovery was around 69% OOIP, which
is lower than waterflooding performance. To evaluate
the recovery performance of the highly fractured parts of
the field, the capillary imbibition performance was also
tested. Brine imbibition yielded 15% OOIP recovery.
More than half of the experiments showed higher recovery when the low IFT solution was used instead of
brine. Obviously, starting the recovery with lower IFT
solution is preferable over the brine imbibition in the
fractured zones provided that the proper surfactant type
and concentration were chosen. Development of this
mature field through low IFT surfactant solution needs
more experimentation (SCAL, simulation and field
pilot) and economic analysis. A similar development
plan has been tested for mature North Sea reservoirs but
no field application has been reported yet (Austad and
Milter, 1997; Standnes and Austad, 2000; Standnes
et al., 2002; Austad and Standnes, 2003; Standnes and
Austad, 2003).
Other example is a small field (the Sahmah field)
containing very light (0.5 cp) oil owned by a small
company (Babadagli et al., 2001). The field has produced for nearly 30 years from 20 vertical and 1 horizontal well and steady decline has started despite
strong water influx through one side of the field. One
layer (high permeability sandstone) was watered-out up
to 7075% OOIP oil recovery. Another layer (tight
sandstone) with high OOIP did not produce almost any
amount of oil. Due to limited resources, the company
wanted to limit capital investment avoiding new wells.
Possibility of nitrogen injection was investigated. The
core injection studies showed additional 68% OOIP
recovery over waterflooding. Note that this recovery
was due to immiscible displacement (and potentially
double displacement) only. The nitrogen injection into
virgin tight sand yielded up to 42% OOIP oil recovery.
The performance was also tested by field scale numerical simulation and consistent results with the
experiments were obtained. Minimum injection pressure
was estimated 45005000 psi due to the depth of the
formation (32003500 mss) and high reservoir pressure
to overcome. The cost of the compressors for this
pressure as well as the injected nitrogen turned out to be
a project demanding some initial investment. Alternatively, air injection possibility, that could recover more
oil owing to the other possible recovery mechanisms at
lower cost, was searched. Although it is more economic

that nitrogen injection, possibility of risk at the production wells caused by unconsumed oxygen turned out
to be a reason to rule out this option.
The above two cases can be considered two extreme
examples of mature field development. Although the
tertiary (or secondary) recovery techniques are different,
the amounts of additional oil recovery were similar. In
the first case (Yibal field) the low IFT solution injection
seemed promising and economic application using
existing water injection system and converting some
production wells into injectors. This long-term investment-intensive plan can be affordable for this size
company whereas in the latter case (the Sahmah field),
the size of the company restricted the tertiary recovery
option due to long pay out time and high investment in
short run.
The pay out time for EOR applications is generally
long and this may not be favorable especially for small
companies. Small companies' investments are typically
for short term and the focus is generally on the acceleration of the production rate that yields high NPV in
the beginning and shorter pay out time. On the contrary,
big size companies can afford investments that target
higher ultimate recovery (or reserves) that may not
necessarily accelerate the production (or yield high
NPV) in short term. It is prudent to estimate the right
time to start EOR applications to reach the highest
possible ultimate recovery at the end of the project.
Several well-known examples are worth mentioning
in regards to the reservoir management practices of
mature fields. Extensive fracture network characterization has been a critical tool in the development of the
Yates field (Snell et al., 2000). The static reservoir
models obtained through these characterization studies
were used in the performance estimations of different
EOR techniques (Winterfeld, 1996; Dershowitz et al.,
2002). Monitoring the process using seismic and
logging techniques was also observed as a useful tool
in the development this field (Snell and Close, 1999).
Characterization of the properties of complex fracture
systems such as density, orientation, connectivity, and
aperture has been an essential part of the development
plans for big mature fields such as the Spraberry (Baker
et al., 2001), offshore Abu Dhabi (Gauthier et al.,
2002), and the giant Ghawar field (Phelps and Strauss,
2002).
A few reservoir management practices that were
applied to nearly abandoned small fields were also
reported. Horizontal wells and waterflooding optimization were proposed for the Espoir Field in Ghana and
potential increase in the recovery was observed with 5
horizontal and 3 injectors using simulation (Lencioni

et al., 1996). Optimized secondary recovery was found
to be applicable to revive a nearly abandoned field in
Illinois (Aman, 1999).
Recently, Wilkinson et al. (2004) provided an analysis of the experience gained from mature carbonate
fields that yielded additional 8 to 20% OOIP recovery
using systematic and integrated reservoir management
approaches. The fields evaluated were the Jay field, the
Slat Creek field, and the Means field. Different EOR
techniques such as CO2, acid gas water, miscible
immiscible gas and foam-WAG assisted CO2 injection
have been applied in those fields. The key parameters
were observed as reservoir description, fluid composition, relative permeability, reservoir pressure, well
trajectories and completions, and process selection.
Excessive water production is one of the most common
problems to be dealt with in mature fields. The remedies
(water conformance) have generally to do with well engineering which is beyond the scope of this paper that
reviews basically reservoir scale management practices.
It should finally be noted that one of the most critical
aspects of reservoir management is the collection and
integration of good quality data. Data collection is
commonly ignored as the field ages and its cost is
obvious. Although the production-rate-data will be
available throughout the history of the field, most of
the production wells that are opened at late stages are not
cored and logged or continuous monitoring of pressure
history is ignored to due to excessive cost. Often times,
water and especially gas productions are not carefully
monitored if they do not have any commercial value.
This causes lack of critical information in material
balance and reservoir simulation practices. Therefore,
continuous data gathering and its integration starting
from the drilling of a well are critical. Determination of
what type of data to be monitored, collected, and
evaluated during the course of production should be
done at very early stages and this should be a continuous
process to create a good quality data bank at the later
stages of the production. An alternative to this is to
conduct data collection campaigns after the field reaches
its maturity as suggested (Mijnssen et al., 2003) and
implemented (Al-Mugheiry et al., 2001) by recent
studies. As the field gets matured, 4-D seismic and
saturation logs as well as updating reservoir models
using the most recent data for locating new wells or
implementation of enhanced oil recovery techniques
could be necessary. However, it is more cost efficient to
collect other types of data such as well information and
reservoir pressure in continuous manner during the
production before the field reaches its maturity.
239
8. Well placement, infill drilling, horizontal wells

and optimizing waterflooding
As a field gets matured, it is necessary to drill new
wells to recover the remaining oil reserves that are
trapped due to heterogeneity or in the unswept zones.
Shirzadi and Lawal (1993) proposed a multidisciplinary
approach for the Prudhoe Bay field that increased the
rate in short term and ultimate recovery in long term.
Success stories of improved oil recovery through infill
drilling in mature fields were presented for different
fields (Javed, 1995; Fah et al., 1997; Nosseir et al.,
1999; Ghosh et al., 2004). It is essential to determine the
optimal well placement for mature fields and this requires accurate mapping of remaining oil distribution
and description of heterogeneity (Vincent et al., 1999).
Holm (1980) compared infill drilling, waterflooding
and EOR techniques as reservoir management strategies
for mature fields. He stated that the infill drilling is less
expensive and accelerate the production of oil. Infill
drilling is the only way to recover oil trapped due to
heterogeneity. In that sense, it increases reserves. EOR
may not require additional well drilling but pay out time
is generally too long that is not favorable for especially
small companies. Although it is the most expensive
choice, a combination of infill drilling and EOR would
yield the most beneficial development scheme. He
concluded that the earliest increase in the reserves is
obtained in 2 to 3 years when the EOR and infill options
are applied together. The most suitable method is chemical injection for this type of approach.
Other practices that have been applied in mature field
development include the development plans through
optimized waterflooding (Stiles, 1976; Woodling et al.,
1993; Vincent et al., 2002; Hendih et al., 2002) and
horizontal drilling (Taber and Seright, 1992; AlShidhani et al., 1996; Palasthy et al., 2000; Edwards
et al., 2002). The Wilmingon field waterflooding optimization study was performed by mapping the production gross and oil, and water cut bubble maps, injection
streamline maps and pattern performance graphs after
55 years of production (Woodling et al., 1993). Vincent
et al. (2002) proposed a development policy for a mature
waterflood project by optimization of well locations,
management of subsurface uncertainties and a decision
scheme for whether a well remains a producer or
injector. After an extensive simulation and optimization
study, they showed that the technically and economically optimal solution was to convert 6 of 11 wells to
injector. Hendih et al. (2002) evaluated four options (do
nothing, infills at low cost and low rate, pattern waterflood re-alignment, and shut in some of the injectors) for
240
the mature Minas field that produced 13% OOIP by

primary recovery and 29% OOIP by peripheral water
injection, and 1.42.7% OOIP by pattern waterflooding.
They found that the realignment of 7 infill wells would
be an economic application even though those wells
robbed oil from other producers. Stiles (1976) proposed
an optimal mature waterflood application for the Fullerton Cleakfork Unit by converting 82 wells to injectors,
phasing out 35 injectors, drilling 61 infill producers, and
converting 42 more wells to injectors to implement 1 to 1
line drive in the west part of the field. The project was
initiated and it was observed that 36% of the total
production was from the infill wells.
The Yibal field in Oman is an excellent example of
mature field development using horizontal wells. After
25 years of production, a high density-horizontal infill
campaign was started. In 1996, 100 horizontal wells
were drilled from which 60% of total oil production was
obtained. It was observed that they yielded higher production, improved recovery, higher optimization gains,
reduced operating cost, and enhanced safety (Al-Shidhani
et al., 1996; Mijnssen et al., 2003). Within 5 years, the
recovery factor jumped from 30% to 40% but the water-oil
increased nine fold (Mijnssen et al., 2003).
Successful applications of the use of horizontal wells
in EOR applications were also reported. A good example is the mature miscible flood in the Swan Hills
field. After 10 years of waterflooding (19631973),
hydrocarbon miscible injection was started in this field
(Griffith and Cyca, 1981). Then, it was converted to a
chase gas injection in 1989 and the solvent injection was
reinitiated in 1994 in a single pattern using a horizontal
injector and reduced well spacing (Edwards et al.,
2002). Four patterns were developed in 2002 expecting
10% OOIP incremental recovery from the first two
patterns. Based on the height of the reservoir, optimal
injection rates and well spacing were determined to
prevent any gravity override. It was reported that
converting the hydrocarbon miscible flood injectors to
horizontal producers did not perform well. A region of
high gas saturation around the converted well led to
early breakthrough because of high gas relative
permeability. The success of the horizontal patterns
resulted from the placement of the horizontal wellbore at
the bottom of the pay and tighter well spacing that both
maximized the sweep efficiency. Another successful
application of horizontal wells was reported by Palasthy
et al. (2000). The Algyo field in Hungary was developed
by vertical oil producers between 1975 and 1985 followed by a gas lift operation. Pressure maintenance by
water injection was started in 1985. In 1993, a project
was initiated to recover by-passed oil by horizontal
wells. In 1999, the recovery factor reached 22% and

contribution from the horizontal wells to the recovery
was 26%. Prospect was 41% OOIP ultimate recovery of
which 12% is due to horizontal well.
Taber and Seright (1992) evaluated the performances
of tertiary recovery techniques (gas, chemical, and
thermal injections) when horizontal wells are used. They
observed that the sweep increased and low injection
pressure was required for all these techniques but faster
rate was observed for chemical (polymer and alkalinemicellar) and CO2 injection only.
The scope of this review paper was limited to
reservoir engineering applications and enhanced oil
recovery in mature field development. Well and surface
facilities related issues comprise the other aspects of
mature field development. One of the most common
well related problems is increasing water production.
Water shut off techniques using gelled polymers were
proposed and tested for mature fields (Willhite et al.,
2000; Fowler, 2004). Other possible well engineering
applications in mature field development include scale
control (Jordan et al., 2006) and using alternative artificial lift systems (Eson, 1997). Two other studies regarding the mature field development proposed low cost
production (Pasni and Wibowo, 2000) and workover/
completion (Fabel et al., 1999) operations.
9. Concluding remarks
In this paper, reservoir engineering practices to
develop mature fields were covered with the emphasis
on tertiary oil recovery and several other reservoir management strategies. It is clear that almost all of the giant
fields in the world reached their maturity still have a
considerable amount of oil left behind to be recovered.
Increasing oil prices made small size fields that were
abandoned due to uneconomic operational conditions by
big companies attractive to small companies. Because of
these reasons, mature field development is increasingly
becoming an attractive but challenging topic.
The very first challenge in the mature field development is to locate the remaining oil, which occurs due
to inefficient displacement (residual oil in the pores of
the swept zones) or poor sweep (by passed oil). Next,
the right technique to develop the field should be
chosen. All these require exhausting optimization
studies and long term planning. Often times this turns
out to be a difficult exercise due to uncertainty in the oil
prices and other instabilities.
Mature field development plans, especially the
tertiary recovery attempts, require a clear identification
of the ultimate goal. The amount of oil recovered by
tertiary methods is normally less than the secondary (or

primary) recovery techniques while the cost is generally
higher. Small size companies typically target the acceleration of the recovery whereas big size companies
may afford slower recovery at the beginning targeting
higher ultimate recovery. Therefore, the tertiary recovery techniques that require longer pay out time and
investment, due to additional wells drilled and cost of
the injectant, could be more attractive for big fields
owned by big size companies. Another issue to be
considered is the microscopic efficiency of tertiary
recovery techniques that might remarkably be affected
by the amount of remaining water from the secondary
techniques. Therefore, it is important to decide on when
the right time is to switch to tertiary method to reach the
highest possible value of ultimate recovery at the end of
the project.
Nomenclature
A
Reservoir area
Bo
Formation volume factor of oil
Bg
Formation volume factor of gas
Bt
Two-phase formation volume factor
BoWF
Formation volume factor of oil (after
waterflooding)
BW
Formation volume factor of water
(Ci)oil Concentration of tracer i in the oil phase (mol/
volume)
(Ci)water Concentration of tracer i in the water phase
(mol/volume)
co
Reservoir oil compressibility
ct
Reservoir rock compressibility
cw
Reservoir water compressibility
Co
Conductivity of 100% brine saturated sample
Cw
Conductivity of brine.
E
Bleeding factor (1.1).
F
Formation resistivity factor
Gi
Cumulative gas injected
h
Formation thickness
IFflow
Free Flow Index
k
Permeability
m
Ratio of initial gas cap size to initial oil zone
size
M
Mobility ratio
M
Oil average molecular weight
n
Saturation exponent (1.42.8)
Nfoi
Initial oil in place
Np
Oil produced
Pc
Critical pressure
q
Production rate
Qv
Meq of exchange cations per cc of pore space
r
Radius
Ro
Rp
Rs
Rt
Rw
P
So res
P
So cores
So
Sor
Sorm
Sow
Sw
T
V
Vw
Vo
We
Wi
Wp
P
og
ow
wg
241
Resistivity of 100% brine saturated sample

Cumulative produced gasoil ratio (scf/stb)
Solution gas oil ratio (scf/stb)
True resistivity (measured by log)
Resistivity of brine
Average waterflood residual oil in the reservoir
(flooded region)
Average waterflood residual oil from cores
Oil saturation
Residual oil saturation
Miscible and near-miscible residual oil saturation
Spreading coefficient
Water saturation
Temperature
Permeability variation
Water velocity
Oil velocity
Cumulative water influx, rb
Cumulative water injected, stb
Cumulative water produced, stb
Pressure drop, psi
Porosity
Viscosity
Reduced density ( / c)
Critical density
Solubility parameter, m0.5/t L0.5
Interfacial tension between oil and gas
Interfacial tension between oil and water
Interfacial tension between water and gas
Acknowledgment
This paper is the revised version of SPE 93884
presented at the 2005 SPE Europec Biennial Conference
held in Madrid, Spain, 1316 June 2005.
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discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:

Development of mature oil fields A

Available from: Tayfun Babadagli

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221 246

Development of mature oil fields A review

E-mail address: tayfun@ualberta.ca.

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

4.4. Production data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

fields is the fields reaching the peak of their production

2. Definition and elements of mature field development

Fig. 1. Different stages of oil recovery that can be assumed as the

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

recompletion, stimulation, treatments, optimization of

4. Techniques used to determine the amount of

where B is defined as follows:

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

cw is the reciprocal of Rw. The oil saturation is estimated

Both conventional and log-inject-log applications are

with high accuracy. The following equation is applied to

where t1 and t2 , and w1 and w2 are the capture

This technique is applicable only in open holes.

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

similar to the PNC and a gamma ray detector. The

The gamma radiation log is another log type used for

Vp Nfoi Boi 1 cf DP=1 Swi

Dependency on the real (measured) production data

where the (k / )t is the total mobility defined as

4.6. Chemical tracers

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

The value of Ki can be measured in the laboratory.

Eq. (17) can be written in terms of the saturations as

The velocities are obtained from field experiments

variations in n (saturation exponent) and m (cementation

Elkins (1972) observed that the cores acquired from

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

and pressure coring is important in the evaluation of

answers for a layered sandstone and a carbonate field in

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

equation they located undepleted (or unswept) zones for

immiscible (double displacement methods and inert gas)

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

The solubility parameters for crude oil and gas

dg 0:326Pc 0:5 qr =qr liq

miscible zone. In this case, the recovery might be

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

WAG produced higher oil recovery than the tertiary slug.

exposed to a similar tests by Babadagli et al. (2002).

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

The laboratory experiments provide answers to these

above the recovery that could possibly be recovered by

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

Standnes and Austad (2000) tested the capillary

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

effective as in the water-wet sandstone case (Hatiboglu

tageous part of the development of mature fields through

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221246

The sample field cases selected to represent different

20% OOIP recovery from the following polymer flood

6.7 billion bbl

North Ward Estes

1.1 billion bbl

South Ward (1933)