Statoil said Monday that it has plans to increase the hydrocarbon recovery rate from the Norwegian continental shelf from 50 to 60%.
The global oil recovery rate is about 35%, and the average recovery rate on the Norwegian continental shelf is about 47%. Last year, the company achieved a recovery rate of 50% in its oil fields, up from 49% in 2010. The 1% increase amounted to an increase of 327 million bbl of oil and created an added value of NOK 200 billion based on an oil price of USD 100/bbl.
The rig count is also important to the increased recovery effort because the drilling of new wells and the maintenance of existing wells are the best ways to increase recovery. Rig capacity on the Norwegian continental shelf is limited, the company said.
Toward the 60% goal, Statoil has begun building Norway’s largest research center for improved oil recovery in Trondheim.
The facility will cost about NOK 240 million, and its construction is scheduled to be completed at the end of next year. It will be built next to the company’s research center at Rotvoll and will focus on technology such as drilling, wellbore, reservoir mapping, and advanced injection techniques. The center will have a computerized tomography (CT) scanner that is 100 times more powerful than a medical CT scanner, the company said.
