Advantaged Oil -- July 25, 2022

Advantaged oil: I've rarely seen this term used; I believe Shell was one of the first to use it -- several years ago. Hadn't see the phrase used much; I have a tag "advantaged oil" and was thinking of getting rid of it because I seldom saw it in use. Then today, I saw "advantaged oil" used again, but forgot to get the link. So, I get the term is still occasionally used. So, let's take a look: wow, this is simply amazing, and I completely missed it. Link here.

From March 30, 2021.

A complex mix of geologic factors is in play. Relationships between reservoir geology and performance are strongest when the data are filtered by region or resource theme. And it’s only by looking at a wide population of similar reservoirs that operators can benchmark recovery factors – and pick out an asset, portfolio or play that presents an opportunity.

The scale of that opportunity could be huge. Brazil, for example, has by far the largest in place oil volumes, yet lags other leading deepwater countries in terms of average recovery factor. The prize for increasing deepwater field recovery to match international benchmarks would be enormous.

What are the subsurface factors that matter?

Our analysis focuses on three selected examples of key reservoir parameters that correlate with oil recovery factors.

These are:

1. Porosity
2. Reservoir depth
3. Gross depositional environment (GDE)

Globally, the average oil recovery factors for combined primary and secondary recovery are around 32%. Increasing the recovery factor of maturing projects could significantly boost the economics of a mature asset. We can see this illustrated in our exploration of these three key subsurface factors.