Tight oil plays now taking an enhanced role

By Noah Brenner

 28 June 2012 22:59 GMT

NORTH American operators have only jusr begun to tap the array of onshore tight oil plays but many already believe that how industry applies enhanced oil recovery techniques to tight reservoirs will have huge implications for long-term production.

Current enhanced oil recovery efforts are focused on wringing more oil from conventional reservoirs, where high permeabilities and porosities make it easier to push molecules of oil using water, carbon dioxide and natural gas.

In tight oil reservoirs, such as the Bakken and Eagle Ford, operators have to create those flow paths through hydraulic fracturing and much work remains to be done to model how those artificial reservoirs will respond to EOR techniques that were developed for conventional plays.

One thing that makes EOR possibly more important in tight reservoirs is that initial…

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