Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on innovative solutions for the energy industry. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, you will discover 5 promising enhanced oil recovery solutions.
Heat Map: 5 Top Enhanced Oil Recovery Solutions
Using the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups globally, we looked at innovation in the field of oil & gas recovery. For this research, we identified 164 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & scaleups developing EOR solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 164 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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Vanguard-EOR – Gas Injection-Based EOR
Gas injection is a technique used in EOR to re-pressurize depleted reservoirs, induce the flow of oil towards production wells, and achieve higher ultimate recovery. This EOR technique is typically employed in both conventional & unconventional reservoirs. Advancements in gas injection EOR include water alternating gas (WAG) and simultaneous water alternating gas injection (SWAG), as well as polymer water alternating gas (PWAG) injection, and the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas membrane separation technology. Oil & gas startups are also developing field applications of immiscible gas‐assisted gravity drainage (GAGD).
Vanguard-EOR is a US-based scaleup offering enhanced oil recovery technologies and services. The scaleup uses its proprietary multi-lateral jetting technologies to significantly increase oil and gas production from marginal, under-performing, or shut-in wells. Further, Vanguard-EOR’s proprietary stimulation fluids enable extended reach displacement. Vanguard’s EOR fluid incorporates a CO2 propagation formula and artificially recreates optimal reservoir pressure to improve oil flow.
Cavitas Energy Limited – Thermal EOR
Since heavy crude accounts for nearly 70 percent of global reserves, increasing its recovery potentially unlocks larger reserves of oil. Thermal EOR reduces the viscosity of heavy oils and enables the mobility of oil towards the production well. Thermal EOR techniques include fire flooding or in-situ combustion, steam flooding, cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).
Cavitas Energy is a British startup specializing in enhanced oil recovery techniques to support the oil and gas service industry. The startup is uncovering technologies supporting thermal EOR. Moreover, Cavitas’ Thermal Heavy Oil Recovery technology addresses the global requirement for in-well thermal EOR for use in reservoirs, particularly when conventional methods are not effective.
Interface Fluidics – EOR Performance Evaluation
Chemical-based EOR is one of the more prominent techniques in use for heavily depleted formations. Using chemicals reduces the interfacial tension between oil and brines, thereby promoting the flow of residual oils in the reservoir. For example, polyacrylamides (PAM) and hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), as well as biopolymers and superabsorbent polymer composite (SAPC), are driving the industry’s innovation in chemical-based EOR solutions.
Interface Fluidics is a Canadian startup providing reservoir fluid analysis for the petroleum industry. Interface Fluidics’ proprietary nanofluidic technology platform enables oil and gas companies to better understand their reservoirs. The startup deploys its Chemical Performance Evaluation solution that considers the pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) analysis, flow assurance, fluid compatibility, and chemical optimization. This chemical EOR solution helps reduce costs on chemicals to extract higher economic value from a polymer injection program. Further, the solution allows oil and gas companies to make informed decisions to manage and operate reservoirs.
ResMetrics – Interwell Tracer Tests
Interwell tracer tests help investigate reservoir flow performance and other properties that control gas and water displacement. Data from tracers help reduce uncertainties attributed to well-to-well communications, vertical and horizontal flow, as well as residual oil saturation. Adding tracers further enable oil and gas companies to determine the flow of the injected solvents. By combining tracer data with field production history, tracer data further provide a baseline for determining volumetric sweep efficiency. This helps the oil and gas industry better plan and execute EOR projects.
ResMetrics is a US-based startup providing design, project execution, and data interpretation of chemical tracer data used in hydraulic fracturing treatments and EOR projects. ResMetrics’ improved oil recovery (IOR) and EOR evaluator module aids in visualizing the sweep efficiency of an IOR/EOR project. Then, the startup conducts a quantitative analysis of tracer data using RTDA (Residence Time Distribution Analysis) to determine flow geometry. This solution also enables analyzing the remaining oil saturation to further optimize EOR design.
Maha Energy – EOR Engineering Solutions
Tertiary recovery techniques demonstrate enormous potential in recovering stranded oil trapped at the pore-scale. About one‐third of the original oil-in-place (OOIP) is left behind in inaccessible regions of the reservoir during normal operations. EOR helps in restoring formation pressure and enhances oil displacement in the reservoir.
Maha Energy is a Swedish scaleup that offers expertise to build a solid foundation of production assets and near-field exploration technologies. The startup implements EOR technologies in existing and maturing oil fields to increase oil recovery by more than half of the OOIP. Maha Energy focuses on economically-viable EOR engineering solutions for underperforming hydrocarbon assets.
What About The Other 159 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence and enable you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 enhanced oil recovery solutions showcased above are promising examples out of 164 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
