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 miscible–immiscible 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. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
2. Definition and elements of mature field development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
3. How much oil is left and where is the remaining oil? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4. Techniques used to determine the amount of remaining oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.1. Core analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.2. Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.3. Volumetric-reservoir engineering studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

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
222 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246

4.4. Production data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

4.5. Well testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
4.6. Chemical tracers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
4.7. Field experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
5. Tertiary recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.1. Laboratory scale investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.1.1. Non-fractured rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.1.2. Immiscible gas injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.2. Miscible gas injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.3. Air injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
5.4. Chemical injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
5.5. Fractured rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
6. Field scale applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
7. Reservoir management practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
8. Well placement, infill drilling, horizontal wells and optimizing waterflooding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
9. Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Nomenclature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

1. Introduction fields is the fields reaching the peak of their production

or producing fields in declining mode. A third definition
The world average of oil recovery factor is estimated could be the fields reaching their economic limit after
to be 35%. Additional recovery over this “easy oil” primary and secondary recovery efforts. Fig. 1 shows a
depends on the availability of proper technologies, typical production life of a field. Any points indicated by
economic viability, and effective reservoir management a question mark can be considered as the time when the
strategies. On the other hand, the chance of discovering maturity is reached. The tendency, however, is to define
giant fields remarkably decreases (Blaskovich, 2000). the decline period indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1, which
The discovery rate for the giant fields peaked in the late is typically reached after having some secondary re-
1960s and early 1970s and declined remarkably in the covery efforts. Increasing water and gas production,
last two decades (Ivanhoe, 1997). About thirty giant decreasing pressure, and aging equipment are other in-
fields comprise half of the world's oil reserves and most dicators of maturity.
of them are categorized as mature field. The develop- Technologies to revitalize mature oil fields are based
ment of those fields entails new and economically viable on either well or reservoir applications. Once the maxi-
techniques, and proper reservoir management strategies mum number of wells that can possibly be applicable to
(Black and LaFrance, 1998; Al-Attar, 2004). the field is reached, well development practices such as
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.

2. Definition and elements of mature field development

Fig. 1. Different stages of oil recovery that can be assumed as the
Oil fields after a certain production period are called starting of the maturity of a field. Typical tendency is the period
mature fields. A more specific definition of mature indicated by the arrow.
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
Table 1
Logs used to determine residual oil saturation
Log type Technique
Resistivity Conventional
Pulsed neutron Log-inject-log
Nuclear Conventional
magnetism
Carbon/Oxygen Log-inject-log
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. Re-
booking 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 devel-
opment 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 im-
portant 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 develop-
ment. 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 in-
formation 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 re-
covered, 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 satura-
tion 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 tech-
niques (Egbogah, 1994). Volumetric reservoir engineer-
ing 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.
223
Cased hole Accuracy
N Poor
Y Good
N Poor
Y Good
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 P M
ð So Þres ¼ ð So Þcore Bo E ð1Þ
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 þ R BQ
Sw ¼ 4 5
o w V
ð2Þ
Rt 1 þ RwSBQ
w
V
where B is defined as follows:
B ¼ 0:046ð1  0:6eCw =0:013 Þ ð3Þ
224 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246

cw is the reciprocal of Rw. The oil saturation is estimated with high accuracy. The following equation is applied to
using So = 1− Sw. This relationship is commonly used for estimate the remaining oil saturation:
the conventional applications of resistivity logs as well as a
ðRt2  Rt1 Þ
few others such as Simandoux and Fertl and Hammack Sor ¼ 1  ð6Þ
equations. /ðRw2  Rw1 Þ
The same types of logs are used for log-inject-log where Σt1 and Σt2 , and Σw1 and Σw2 are the capture
applications as well. In this process, oil bearing for- cross sections of the formation and water measured
mation is logged to obtain the Rt first. A solvent is then before and after the injection, respectively.
injected to remove oil. Finally, brine is injected to mea- A more accurate technique was proposed later using
sure the Ro. The oil saturation is calculated using the nuclear magnetism log. This techniques detects hydro-
following relationship: gen in the water and oil and applicable as inject-log.
 1n Water containing paramagnetic ions is injected into the
Ro formation and the Free Flow Index (IFflow) of oil is
So ¼ 1  ð4Þ
Rt directly or computationally obtained. Then, the follow-
ing equation is applied to estimate the remaining oil
Both conventional and log-inject-log applications are saturation:
used only in open holes. The accuracy of the saturation IFflow
exponent, n is vital in the estimation of the remaining oil Sor ¼ ð7Þ
/
(or reserves). Due to the empirical nature of this quan-
tity, the use of resistivity logs in the saturation estima- This technique is applicable only in open holes.
tion has always been questionable. Small changes in this Another log type used to determine the remaining oil
exponent may result in significant variations in the saturation is the carbon-oxygen (C/O) log, which detects
reserves obtained by volumetric calculations. Variability carbon (exists in HC) and oxygen (exists in water). It is
of the saturation exponent in the reservoir caused by the
clay content and pore structure is another factor affect-
ing 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:

1
Co ¼ ðBQV þ Cw Þ ð5Þ
F

The plot of Cw vs. Co yielded QV. Previous ex-

perience 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 under-
estimated value of hydrocarbon saturation (Cook et al.,
2000). Fig. 2. Effect of clay content on the hydrocarbon saturation when Eq. (2) is
Pulsed neutron capture (PNC) log can be used in log- used to calculate it (re-plotted using the data provided in Al-Kharusi,
inject-log applications for both open and cased holes unpublished).
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246 225

similar to the PNC and a gamma ray detector. The if the flow rates are known. Oil saturation can be calc-
remaining oil saturation is estimated using the following ulated by dividing the current reservoir volume of the oil
equation: by the current pore volume:

C=Olog  C=O100%water Vo ðNfoi  Np ÞBo

So ¼ ð8Þ So ¼ ¼ ð12Þ
C=O100%oil  C=O100%water Vp Nfoi Boi ð1  cf DPÞ=ð1  Swi Þ

The gamma radiation log is another log type used for Dependency on the real (measured) production data
log-inject-log applications. In this process, water with makes these techniques reliable compared to the labora-
radioactive tracer is injected before and after removal of tory measurements.
residual oil.
Lately, Hlebszevitsch et al. (2003) and Gutierrez et al. 4.5. Well testing
(2001) reported synthetic sonic log and cased-hole log-
ging applications to assess the remaining oil saturation in Permeability and relative permeabilities can be ob-
mature oil fields. tained from pressure transient data. If the relative perme-
ability measurement through core analysis is available,
4.3. Volumetric-reservoir engineering studies one can obtain the saturations using the relative perme-
ability data. In addition, saturation can be estimated
The remaining oil saturation is obtained by the fol- through the following relationship if there is no free gas
lowing equation if the total amount of oil in place (Nfoi) in the system (Ramey, 1975).
and the cumulative oil produced to the end of water- ct  cw  cf
flooding (Np) is known: So ¼ ð13Þ
co  cw
ðN  Np ÞBoWF cf, co, and cw are the pore volume, water, and oil
Sor ¼ ð9Þ
7758Ah/ compressibilities, respectively. The total compressibility,
ct, can be obtained from pressure transient analysis using
Prediction of Np is a critical task. One of the tech- the following relationship (Earlougher, 1977):
niques used for this is the material balance equation:
0:0002637ðk=lÞt DtM
ct ¼ ð14Þ
Nfoi ðBt  Bti Þ þ ðWi  Wp Bw Þ þ Gi Bg /r2 ðtD =rD2 ÞM
Np ¼
ðRp  Rs ÞBg þ Bo
where the (k / μ)t is the total mobility defined as
Bti
½ðC f þ Swi Cw ÞDP þ Bgi ðBg  Bgi Þ þ We
mBti
þ
ð1Swi Þ
      !
ðRp  Rs ÞBg þ Bo k ko kw kg
¼ þ þ ð15Þ
ð10Þ l t lo lw lg

The material balance calculations based on this equa-
tion 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 re-
lative permeability data. The relative permeability ratio
can be obtained using
ΔtM and (tD / rD
2
)M are the time and dimensionless time
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 thermody-
namic equilibrium ratio, Ki is obtained as follows:

krw qw Bw lw Bw lw ðCi Þoil

¼ ¼ WOR ð11Þ ¼ Ki ð16Þ
kro qo Bo lo Bo lo ðCi Þwater
226 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
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 ¼ pi Vw þ ð1  pi ÞVo ð17Þ
Eq. (17) can be written in terms of the saturations as
follows:
ð1  So ÞVw þ Ki So Vo
Vi ¼ ð18Þ
ð1  So Þ þ Ki So
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 co-
efficient, Ki is injected and the time for arrival to another
well is measured, one can obtain the residual oil satu-
ration using
ð1  Sor ÞVw
Vi ¼ ð19Þ
ð1  Sor Þ þ Ki Sor
Recently, Huseby et al. (2003) provided an experi-
mental and numerical technique to estimate the location
and the size of bypassed and stagnant oil using geo-
chemical 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 che-
mical tracer methods can be applied to old cased wells.
Elkins (1978) compiled the residual oil saturation
values obtained by different techniques for different forma-
tions in the US. Figs. 3 and 4 show the comparison of
different techniques. Based on this evaluation, the fol-
lowing 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 dif-
fusion coefficient (Do) contrast between them in NMR
applications. They compared the old resistivity satura-
tion measurements to the new values obtained from the
NMR and noted that the resistivity based model is com-
plex and requires a substantial level of petrophysical
expertise to implement while the NMR approach is re-
latively simpler.
Verma et al. (1991) compared residual oil saturations
obtained through special core analysis (SCAL), log-
inject-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 fol-
lowing correlation between these two quantities.
0:06ð1  Sw Þ
SORW ¼ ð20Þ
/
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
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246 227

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 pre-
dicted (Sor being not more than 25%) leaving this field a
marginal field for prospect tertiary oil recovery.
Tchambaz (2004) presented a new formation resis-
tivity 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 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
equation they located undepleted (or unswept) zones for
further treatment.
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
RtCH
CHFR  Depletion  Indicator ¼ ð21Þ
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 com-
bination 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 devel-
opment 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 oc-
cupying 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 (over-
coming the capillary entry pressure). Oil may not be dis-
placed from the smaller pores.
5.1. Laboratory scale investigations
Fractured and non-fractured systems will be evalu-
ated 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 la-
boratory 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 con-
ditions using micro models. They observed that the re-
coveries for positive spreading systems are much higher
than for negative systems when the spreading coeffi-
cient, Sow is defined as follows:
Sow ¼ rwg  rog  row ð22Þ
They also noted that the oil is displaced by a double-
drainage mechanism (gas/oil and oil/water interface
movement) for both positive and negative spreading
systems and gas/water displacement is possible for ne-
gative spreading systems.
Kantzas et al. (1998a,b) studied downward displace-
ment of oil by inert gas (nitrogen or air) injected at the
top of the formation using horizontal wells after water-
flooding. 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 con-
tinuous 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 addi-
tional 28% of the remaining oil could be recovered after
57% OOIP waterflooding recovery by immiscible WAG
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
from original sandstone reservoir cores with 18% po-
rosity and 25–300 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 36–42% 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 si-
mulation 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 ¼ 0:036ðjdoil  dg jÞ  0:029 ð23Þ
The solubility parameters for crude oil and gas
(Gidding et al., 1968) are defined as follows:
doil ¼ 0:01⁎M þ 6:54  0:01⁎ðT  25Þ ð24Þ
dg ¼ 0:326ðPc Þ0:5 ðqr =qr ðliqÞÞ ð25Þ
where M is oil average molecular weight and T is tem-
perature. ρr(liq) is the reduced density of the gas com-
pressed to a liquid state.
In many applications, the process might take place at
pressures slightly below the MMP because of the vari-
ation 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 pres-
sure 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 enrich-
ment 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 misci-
ble 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 con-
trolled 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, signi-
ficant oil recovery is obtained due to extraction regard-
less of WAG ratio.
Another critical aspect of WAG injection is to deter-
mine the best injection strategies to maximize the re-
covery. 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 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
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 experi-
ments 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 applica-
tion after 5–15% 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 injec-
tion 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 concentra-
tion (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 observ-
ed 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 re-
tention 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 (33–35 °API)
sandstone reservoir was reported by Zaitoun et al. (2003).
Low concentration anionic surfactant solutions were in-
jected 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 (alkaline–surfac-
tant–polymer) 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 ter-
tiary 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 estima-
tion. 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 cri-
tical 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-mid-
and long-term plans of the companies. This will be
discussed later in the Field scale applications section.
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
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
matrix–fracture 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 labora-
tory 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 90°C) 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 20–25% 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, 7–9% OOIP oil recovery was
obtained. This is typically the recovery by thermal ex-
pansion. Therefore, starting the process with hot water is
a technically more feasible than starting with water fol-
lowed 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 carbon-
ate 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 fol-
lowing the water injection gave additional 14% reco-
very. 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 tempera-
ture. 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 in-
teraction 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 water-
flooding 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 ca-
pillary imbibition recovery from Berea sandstone matrix
with different non-ionic surfactant solutions after brine
imbibition that yielded 45–60% 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 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
Standnes and Austad (2000) tested the capillary
imbibition recovery on dolomitic samples. Without any
surfactant addition, no recovery was obtained after ex-
posing 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 re-
covery 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 sur-
factants (65% of OOIP). Standnes and Austad (2003) also
tested C12TAB on the dolomitic samples exposed ini-
tially 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 imbibi-
tion 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 produc-
tion 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 alcohol–poly 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 concen-
tration). 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 imbibi-
tion. 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 sur-
factant solutions is a possibility after completed imbi-
bition 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 Baba-
dagli (2004) tested the recovery potential of solvent (n-
heptane) diffusion on Berea sandstone cores exposed to
complete brine imbibition. They obtained 42%–55%
OOIP co- and counter-current capillary imbibition re-
covery with brine for different matrix shape factor (length
to diameter ratio). Additional solvent (n-heptane) recov-
ery 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 Primary rec. Additional Additional tertiary k
no. with brine secondary rec. rec. with C10 NH2 (mD)
(% OOIP) with C10 NH2 (% OOIP)
at 70 °C (% OOIP) at 70 °C at 20 °C
1 15 28 5 22
2 8 5 57 352
3 7 1 44 101
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
effective as in the water-wet sandstone case (Hatiboglu
and Babadagli, 2005), especially for heavier oils.
Svec and Grigg (2000) studied the additional re-
covery 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 ex-
posed to CO2 injection, 40%, 35%, and 32% OOIP addi-
tional 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 labora-
tory 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, surfac-
tant 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 dif-
ficulties in modeling matrix–fracture interactions and
representing the complex fracture networks.
6. Field scale applications
Despite their technical feasibility (effectiveness) as
discussed in the previous sections, in many circum-
stances, the economics of tertiary recovery field ap-
plications does not permit to choose this option as a
mature field development plan. Careful analysis of eco-
nomic 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 ex-
perience 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 incre-
mental 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. There-
fore, 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 re-
covery. 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 dif-
ferent 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 long-
term 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 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
The sample field cases selected to represent different
tertiary recovery methods and field types are summa-
rized 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 con-
trolled 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 incre-
mental recovery for CO2 injection. They observed that
0:1 (continuous CO2) and 1:1 WAG ratios yielded simi-
lar tertiary oil recovery (14–16%) 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 chemi-
cals 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 bet-
ween the slug size (PV) and tertiary oil recovery (% OOIP)
was observed. Higher amount of oil and surfactant con-
centration 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 sand-
stone 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). Alkaline–polymer 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 water-
flooding 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 favor-
able tertiary recovery method for a small size company.
However, its potential danger in the production wells
caused by the unconsumed oxygen and pressure re-
quired 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 reser-
voir 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 OOIP Injected fluid Formation type/ μoil/°API Recovery history Primary and Incremental tertiary Comments Ref.
(discovery year) (year started) permeability (starting year) secondary recovery recovery

Slaughter Estate Unit 0.65 MMstb Miscible acid Carbonate 6.4 mD 1.38 cp WF (1972), AG (1976), 18% OOIP79 15% OOIP80 Schiltz et al., 1984;
(1937) gas-(1976) pilot CG (1978) WF (1982) (95,680 stb) Rowe et al., 1982
Twofreds (Delaware) 51 MM stb CO2 (1974) Sandstone 32 mD 1.5 cp WF (1963) CO2 (1974) 16.4 % OOIP Significant recovery Incremental rec. was Schiltz et al., 1984

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246

Unit (1957) field scale (prim. + sec.) was observed difficult to determine
Weyburn (1956) 1.4 billion bbl Misc. CO2 (2000) Fractured carbonate 0.5 cp WF (1960s) Ult. sec. rec. 25–35% 10% OOIP (estimated) Baker and Kuppe, 2000
field scale 1–100 mD
Ekofisk (1969) 6.7 billion bbl Miscible nitrogen Highly fractured 33 °API WF (1986) pilot 24% OOIP (Pr. and Under consideration 2.5–61% OOIP WF Thomas et al., 1991
chalk 0.1–10 (Ekofisk form.) full field gas inj.) 5.5% OOIP (WF) recovery from lab tests
(matrix) 200 (fracture) (Tor form.)
North Ward Estes 1.1 billion bbl CO2 (1989) field scale Sandstone/ 14 cp 37 °API WF (1955) 38.7 % OOIP 4.3% OOIP Opt. WAG = 1:1, opt. Ring and Smith, 1995
(1929) siltstone 15 mD slug size: 38–60% PV
North Ward Estes CO2 — foam Some incremental Heterogeneous res. Chou et al., 1992
(1929) (1989) field scale rec. observed (poor sweep)
Handil (1975) 0.3 billion OOIP Lean gas (immiscible) Sandstone 10–2000 mD 0.6–1 cp Peripheral 58% OOIP (in 1.5 1.2% OOIP (3 yr inj.) 7.4% Core flooding: 27% WF, Gunawan and Caie, 2001
field scale (1995) 31–34 °API water injection of the field) (next 20 yr) 3% tertiary
Kelly-Snyder (1948) 2.11 MM bbl CO2 — WAG (1972) Limestone 20 mD 0.35 cp Centerline WF (1954) Earlier est.: 23% OOIP CO2 — WAG 6% HCPV CO2 Kane, 1999
full field later est. 8% OOIP and 2.8% HCPV water
South Ward (1933) 8.8 MM bbl Propane slug (misc.) Sandstone 40–300 mD 3.4 cp WF (1950) 16% OOIP (primary) 47% 37,000 bbl in ∼2 years ROS after WF: 18.7% (core) Blanton et al., 1970
pilot (1961) OOIP (secondary) 19.3% (volum.) 19.6 (logs)
Phegly Unit (1955) 9.6 MM bbl LPG slug (1964) Sandstone 0.6–610 mD — 2.3 cp WF 5-spot pattern (1959) Pr. 21.4% OOIP Se. 20% 3.4% OOIP ROS after WF: 25% Connally, 1972
full field ave: 168 mD OOIP (1959–1964) (1964 and 1971)
Mitsue Gilwood Unit 770 MM bbl Solution gas enriched Sandstone 64–250 mD Peripheral water Pr.: 1.7% OOIP Se. (WF): Estimated 12.2% OOIP Core data: 58% Frimodig et al., 1988
(1964) with LPG injection (1968) 45% OOIP WF + 26–36% solvent
Brookhaven (1943) Gas + water (1965) Sandstone 56 mD 26–40 °API Gas injection (1948) 5 MM bbl (half Meltzer, 1974
full field water–gas of the residual oil)
produced (1957)
Little Creek (1958) 102 MM stb CO2 full field (quarter Sandstone 33 mD 0.4 cp Peripheral water Pr. + Se.: 54% OOIP Pilot: 122,200 bbls Hansen, 1977
9-spot) (1974) injection (1962–1970) (21% OOIP by WF) between 1973 and 77
Jay/LEC (1970) 728 MM bbl Miscible N2 (1981) Deep carbonate 3 mD 0.18 cp WF (1974) Target was 346–373 MM Target: 47 MM bbl 2.9% OOIP (1981 and 8492) Christian et al., 1981;
bbl (51% OOIP) (6.5% OOIP) 2 MM bbl (1984)93 7–10% Langston and Shirer, 1983;
OOIP (2002)94 Lawrence et al., 2002
Garber (1916) CO2 5-spot Limestone 47 °API WF (1948) 84 MM bbl (prim. 70,000 bbl (1984) Core: WF: 24–35% CO2: 2– Kumar and Eibeck, 1984
pilot (1981) and second) 11% OOIP in pilot area 21% (with increasing pressure)
Offshore Abu Dhabi Immiscible gas (1997) Carbonate Initial target 2% OOIP Lab: 17% OOIP tertiary Bonnin et al., 2002
full field immisc. gas inj.
Wasson (1935) CO2 continuous layer Carbonates (wackestone– Peripheral water 35% OOIP (Pr. + Se.) 15% OOIP97 14.2 MM bbl Irregular pattern not suitable Tanner et al., 1992;
WAG-1981 packstone) 5–10 mD injection (1964) (1983–2000) by infill99 for CO2, converted to 9-spot98 Fox et al., 1994; Thai
et al., 2000
East Vacuum 260 MM stb CO2–WAG–1985 Carbonates (grainstone 1 cp 38 °API WF (1958) 40% OOIP (Pr. + Se.) 21–30 MM stb (8–11% Harpole and
Grayburg San (inject. area) (WAG = 2:1) and packstone) (11 mD) (80 acre — 9-spot) OOIP) infill only: 1.5% OOIP Hallenbeck, 1996
Andreas (1938)

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
Field OOIP Injected fluid (year started) Formation type/ μoil/°API Recovery history Primary and secondary Incremental tertiary Comments Ref.
(discovery year) permeability (starting year) recovery recovery
Whittier (1966) Caustic (1966) 320–495 mD 40 cp 20 °API WF (1968) Secondary (WF) 350,000–470,000 IFT reduced from Graue and Johnson,
was weak stb (by 1973) 20 to 0.002 dyne/cm 1974
Bradford Micellar slugs (petroleum Sandstone– 5 cp 45 °API Average 57% Oil saturation after Danielson et al.,
sulfonates + cosurf. + polym.) siltstone WF: 28–35% 1976
field scale (82 mD)

T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246

Loudon Microemulsion (corefloods only, Sandstone 6–7 cp 39 °API Pr.: 13 yr ∼50% OOIP (Pr. + Rec. from cores: Maerker and Gale,
no field trials) Se.: 38 yr Se. in the field) 20–75% of ROS 1992
Oerrel (1954) Polymer flood (1975) Sandstone 2.2 cp 38 °API 19.5% OOIP (Pr. + Se.) ∼ 20% OOIP Final predicted Maitim and Volz,
value 28% 1981
Hankensbuettel Polymer flood (1977) Sandstone 2.2 cp 38 °API 36% OOIP (Pr. + Se.) 12.5 % OOIP Maitim and Volz,
(1958) (predicted) 1981
Marmul (1956) 390 MM m Polymer flood — pilot
3
High perm sand 80 cp Model study: Pr.: 59% OOIP in Koning et al., 1988
(5-spot) (1986) (up to 10D) 20–30% (WF) Se.: the pilot area
25–30% (polym.)
Glenn Pool 11.5 MM bbl Surfactant injection (sulfonate + Sandstone 4 cp 37 °API WF (1950) 70% (Pr. + Se.) 1.14 MM bbl (10% Largest amount Bae, 1995
(1905) two alcohols) (1982) (150 mD) OOIP) (1979–1992) of surf. rec.
Big Muddy Low IFT (sodium petr. sulfonate) Sandstone 4 cp 35 °API WF (1953) In the pilot test area: 14,382 bbl (1032 preflush, Saad et al., 1989
followed by 50% PV polymer (52 mD) 68% OOIP 13,350 Te.)
(1973–1978) 5-spot
pilot (one producer)
Pownall Ranch Alkali-surfactant (1996) Sandstone 8 cp 26 API WF (1984) Oil rate increased from Injection rate Wyatt et al., 2002
(1974) (20 mD) 9000 to 12,500 increased from
bbl/month 12,000 to 17,500
bbl/m after chemicals
Tanner — 2.6 MM bbl Alkali + surfactant + polymer 11 cp 21 °API WF Oil cut was 43% 33,000 m3 (31% OOIP) Wyatt et al., 2002
Minnelusa B (2000–2002) when ASP started
Saertu Sand Alkali + surfactant + polymer Sandstone WF Oil cut increased from 65,000 bbls Wyatt et al., 2002
pilot \ 4 injectors (1994) 17% to 48% after WF incremental oil
Rapdan Pool Polymer (1985) WF (1962) Estimated 15% OOIP Pilot: 41% OOIP Wyatt et al., 2004
(1955) core: 39% OOIP
David Pool Alkaline–polymer (1987) Sandstone 34 cp 23 °API WF (1978) Primary: 5.3% OOIP Pilot area: 52% OOIP Lab: cum oil was Wyatt et al., 2004
(1970) (1.4 D) WF: 18.1 % OOIP (Pr. and Se.) 22% 74% OOIP (24%
OOIP Te. polymer from Te. polymer)
Daqing Alkali + surfactant + polymer Sandstone 11.5 cp WF WF: 21.3% OOIP Total prod. (Pr. + Se. + Te.) Te.: 31% in the Wyatt et al., 2004
four inverted 5-spot (1994) (1.4 D) 35 °API 49% OOIP pilot area
Bell Creek 0.15 MM bbl Micellar-polymer (oil soluble Sandstone 3 cp 32 °API 34% primary 15% WF 19% Schiltz et al., 1984
pet. sulfonate) (1979–1984) (1 D)
5-spot pattern
North Burbank 1.4 MM bbl Micellar-polymer (sulfonate) Sandstone 3 cp 39 API WF (1954) 25% (primary) 6% (WF) 19% Schiltz et al., 1984
9, 5-spot pattern (50 mD)
Robinson M-1 4.24 MM bbl Micellar-polymer (sulfonate) Sandstone 6 cp 36 API 60% 20% of remaining 40% Schiltz et al., 1984
(1977) field scale (103 mD)
Manvel Micellar-polymer (sulfonate) Sandstone 4 cp 29 °API 70% 44% of remaining Schiltz et al., 1984
2 inj., 3 prod. (500 mD) 30% oil
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
Table 5
A summary of tertiary thermal injection applications reported
Field OOIP Injected fluid Formation μoil — Recovery Primary and
(discovery (year started) type/ °API history secondary
year) permeability recovery
Field H Air
(1994)
Loco Hot water 600 cp WF
Field pilot-inverted
5-spot
(1961–62)
Medicine Air injection Deep 39°API
Pole (1985) carbonate
Hills (1–30 mD)
(1967)
WF: Waterflooding, ROS: Residual Oil Sat., OOIP: Original Oil In-Place, Pr.: Primary, Se.: Secondary, Te.: Tertiary.
recovery through performance monitoring, data acqui-
sition 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 devel-
opment 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 charac-
terization 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 devel-
opment 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
237
Incremental tertiary Comments Ref.
recovery
Pr. + Se. (WF) Additional rec. = Core tests: 31% Sakthikumar
produced 93% of 200,000 stb (in 1 yr) OOIP WF 6% et al. 1995
the reserve 400,000 stb after 3 yr OOIP air
Total recovery was Water injectivity Martin et al.,
∼ 4000 bbl increased 200– 1968
400%
Pr. rec. est.: 15% As of 1995 increm. oil: Kumar et al.,
OOIP 1 MM bbl (2.5% OOIP) 1995
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 implemen-
ted. The field went through primary depletion (1969–
1972), water injection (1972–1981), aquifer injection
(1981–1993), 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 develop-
ment 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, Al-
Mugheiry 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 opportu-
nities 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 perfor-
mance of the chalk samples with the original Yibal oil
recovery was 75% OOIP. Many different surfactant
types and concentrations were tested on waterflooded
238 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
cores and the tertiary recovery potential was found to be
0–7.5%. 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 water-
flooding performance was tested as a secondary re-
covery 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 re-
covery 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 pro-
duced for nearly 30 years from 20 vertical and 1 ho-
rizontal 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 70–75% 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 6–8% 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 nu-
merical simulation and consistent results with the
experiments were obtained. Minimum injection pressure
was estimated 4500–5000 psi due to the depth of the
formation (3200–3500 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. Alterna-
tively, 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 pro-
duction 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 invest-
ment-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 ac-
celeration 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 characteriza-
tion 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 optimiza-
tion were proposed for the Espoir Field in Ghana and
potential increase in the recovery was observed with 5
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
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 anal-
ysis 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 composi-
tion, 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 en-
gineering 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 re-
quires 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 che-
mical 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; Al-
Shidhani et al., 1996; Palasthy et al., 2000; Edwards
et al., 2002). The Wilmingon field waterflooding opti-
mization study was performed by mapping the produc-
tion 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 economi-
cally 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 water-
flood re-alignment, and shut in some of the injectors) for
240 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246
the mature Minas field that produced 13% OOIP by
primary recovery and 29% OOIP by peripheral water
injection, and 1.4–2.7% 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 Full-
erton 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 pro-
duction, 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 ex-
ample is the mature miscible flood in the Swan Hills
field. After 10 years of waterflooding (1963–1973),
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 fol-
lowed 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 alkaline-
micellar) 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 arti-
ficial lift systems (Eson, 1997). Two other studies re-
garding 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 man-
agement 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 devel-
opment 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
 T. Babadagli / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 57 (2007) 221–246 241

tertiary methods is normally less than the secondary (or Ro Resistivity of 100% brine saturated sample
primary) recovery techniques while the cost is generally Rp Cumulative produced gas–oil ratio (scf/stb)
higher. Small size companies typically target the ac- Rs Solution gas oil ratio (scf/stb)
celeration of the recovery whereas big size companies Rt True resistivity (measured by log)
may afford slower recovery at the beginning targeting Rw Resistivity of brine
P
higher ultimate recovery. Therefore, the tertiary recov- ð So Þres Average waterflood residual oil in the reservoir
ery techniques that require longer pay out time and (flooded region)
P
investment, due to additional wells drilled and cost of ð So Þcores Average waterflood residual oil from cores
the injectant, could be more attractive for big fields So Oil saturation
owned by big size companies. Another issue to be Sor Residual oil saturation
considered is the microscopic efficiency of tertiary Sorm Miscible and near-miscible residual oil saturation
recovery techniques that might remarkably be affected Sow Spreading coefficient
by the amount of remaining water from the secondary Sw Water saturation
techniques. Therefore, it is important to decide on when T Temperature
the right time is to switch to tertiary method to reach the V Permeability variation
highest possible value of ultimate recovery at the end of Vw Water velocity
the project. Vo Oil velocity
We Cumulative water influx, rb
Nomenclature Wi Cumulative water injected, stb
A Reservoir area Wp Cumulative water produced, stb
Bo Formation volume factor of oil ΔP Pressure drop, psi
Bg Formation volume factor of gas ϕ Porosity
Bt Two-phase formation volume factor μ Viscosity
BoWF Formation volume factor of oil (after ρ Reduced density (ρ / ρc)
waterflooding) ρc Critical density
BW Formation volume factor of water δ Solubility parameter, m0.5/t L0.5
(Ci)oil Concentration of tracer i in the oil phase (mol/ σog Interfacial tension between oil and gas
volume) σow Interfacial tension between oil and water
(Ci)water Concentration of tracer i in the water phase σwg Interfacial tension between water and gas
(mol/volume)
co Reservoir oil compressibility
ct Reservoir rock compressibility Acknowledgment
cw Reservoir water compressibility
Co Conductivity of 100% brine saturated sample This paper is the revised version of SPE 93884
Cw Conductivity of brine. presented at the 2005 SPE Europec Biennial Conference
E Bleeding factor (1.1). held in Madrid, Spain, 13–16 June 2005.
F Formation resistivity factor
Gi Cumulative gas injected
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