GUWAHATI, Feb 28 - With a large number of its oil fields ageing, the Oil India Limited has set its eyes on enhanced oil recovery methods to ramp up production.
OIL chairman and managing director Utpal Bora said most of the oil fields of the PSU are 30 to 50 years old and were reaching their saturation points. So there is a need to tap reserves that have been bypassed in the conventional drilling procedures.
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or �tertiary recovery� is the implementation of various techniques for increasing the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field. EOR, which involves state-of-the-art laboratory work followed by field pilots, encompasses a range of techniques used to restore formation pressure and improve hydrocarbon displacement or fluid flow in the reservoir.
�If even five per cent of these bypassed reserves can be extracted, OIL stands to gain substantially,� Bora said, addressing a press conference after laying the foundation stone of OIL�s Centre of Excellence for Energy Studies (CoEES) building here.
The CMD underlined the role of Centre of Excellence for Energy Studies (CoEES), which has been engaged in evolving EOR methods since it started functioning from its current leased campus in Guwahati city, in increasing oil production.
�We badly needed such an institute in view of the current status of the oil sector. The institute will also mark�s OIL�s presence in the city. It will be an iconic green building,� he said.
The cost of the building, which will have a floor area of 2,000 sq m, is estimated at Rs 60 crore. It is expected to be completed within three years.
Bora hoped that the centre will help the company in projecting itself as a formidable technological entity among its peers and enable it to live up to its mandate to increase oil productivity.
Maintaining that there was delay of about four-five years in setting up of such an institute by OIL, he added that the CoEES should work overtime to meet the expectations set on it.
