When it comes to field recovery factors, Norway continues to lead the way.

The country has long prided itself on maximizing the long-term recovery of its hydrocarbons for the good of its inhabitants. Statoil is at the heart of this drive to squeeze more out of its reservoirs.

Production from the Kvitebj?rn field on the NCS began on Sept. 26, 2004. The field began delivering natural gas on Oct. 1. (Photo by ?yvind Hagen/ Statoil)

In a recent speech Helge Lund, the Statoil’s president and CEO, pointed out that the NCS already has the world’s highest recovery factor – an impressive 46% on average.

But Statoil does not intend to rest on its laurels. “Our goal is to increase this further,” Lund said. “Our top-producing fields achieve rates close to 70%.” Lund explained how the company is managing to achieve this impressive feat, noting that 40% of Statoil’s total investments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) is directed toward increased oil recovery. “And 1,500-2,000 of our people are working on it every day.”

Anyone who read the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy’s recently released white paper on the country’s petroleum activities would have noticed there is a political drive to make sure these efforts to enhance oil and gas recovery not only continue but are stepped up.

The Ministry in early 2010 appointed a committee of experts with, amongst many other things, a mandate to assess measures to improve recovery from existing fields on the NCS.

The white paper took a close look at the Ekofisk field, which came onstream in 1971 and originally was expected to produce 17% of its resources. Today the plan is to produce more than 50%, representing several hundred MMcm of oil.

On average NCS fields have seen oil reserves increase by a factor of 1.68 from their original plans. Current plans provide an average expected recovery rate of 46% for oil and 70% for gas.

Put this into perspective – the global oil recovery rate lags far behind at 22%.

A 1% improvement of the recovery rate for fields currently operating in Norway alone would have an upside equating to an increase in oil production of 570 MMbbl. According to the white paper, the expert group for improved recovery believes about 15.7 Bbbl of oil can be produced from fields on the NCS, beyond the current plans. They believe exploitation of this potential requires a high oil price and the use of existing and new technology.

The committee proposed several measures within technology areas such as drilling and wells, advanced injection methods, subsea solutions, and reservoir mapping. One recommendation was that companies should test advanced recovery methods such as injection of surfactants, low-saline water, and COto a greater extent.

Norway’s initiatives are indicative of how serious the country is about IOR. If the rest of the upstream sector were to pursue this objective with the same level of commitment, global production volumes would increase astronomically.

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