MUSCAT: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, is preparing to trial the use of nanospheres – microscopically small particles – to unlock difficult oil from its Yibal assets during the current quarter.
The landmark initiative is an example of novel technologies being leveraged by the majority state-owned energy company to support its operations across critical areas, including Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), well construction and production management, artificial lifting, and Produced Water and Energy Management.
Nanospheres are nanoscale (one billionth - 10−9) particles made from polyacrylamide (PAM), a class of long-chain synthetic and water-soluble polymers. In industries, polyacrylamide is used in water management or wastewater treatment because of its ability to encourage the coagulation of particles present in water. In oil and gas industries, the polymer is seen as promising in its ability to contribute to reducing the water cut, increasing sweep efficiency and improving oil recovery.
Effective deployment of the technology can result in significant output and commercial benefits, according to PDO. “A potential improvement on the unit operating cost if US$2-3 per barrel is expected through the implementation of the technology in water-flooded carbonate reservoirs. The technology will further improve the commerciality of growth volumes by up to six million cubic metres of oil from the water-flood carbonate portfolio in our northern fields,” the company stated in its 2023 Sustainability Report.
PDO hopes to unlock around 25 million barrels of oil upon the commencement of the field trial at Yibal in Q3 2024. The company’s EOR team is also assessing possible nanosphere-based chemical EOR projects in Qarn Alam, starting with a pilot in 2025.
A sizable number of novel technologies currently being tested at PDO pertain to the goal of sustaining EOR-based production. EOR is pivotal to sustaining the company’s oil and gas production due to its maturing asset base and the challenging nature of Oman’s geology. EOR is anticipated to account for a significant 28% of PDO’s total oil production in 2031, up from 12% in 2020. The company currently operates a range of commercial-scale EOR schemes, including chemical EOR, miscible gas injection (MGI) and thermal applications.
“In the last five to 10 years, various EOR technologies have been further developed and several EOR projects and trials have been successfully conducted,” said PDO in its report.
“This has generated valuable information from a field testing and performance perspective, including operational learnings. It has also allowed for a much wider window of application and contributed to our aspirational target of exceeding our 700,000 bpd production plateau aspiration,” it added.
PDO achieved a combined oil, gas and condensate production of 1.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2023, generating in excess of $22 billion in revenue for the country. Crude oil production averaged 657,599 barrels per day (bpd) in 2023. Condensate output averaged 97,426 bpd, while gas production was 58.26 million m3/d, consistent with lower customer demand.
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