f Production Technologies for Heavy Oil Development

The current state of recent industrial development is characterized by the consumption of enormous quantities of hydrocarbon resources. Howover, while demand for hydrocarbon resources continues to rise, worldwide petroleum production is in steady decline. The era of cheap oil came to an end. Most of the forecasts agree that conventional oil will be a much smaller portion of our asset base. Heavy Oil will have an increasingly important role in meeting the world’s energy demand. With the decline in oil discoveries in the last decades it is believed that novel technologies will play a key role on this subject. With a worldwide resource base that may exceed 6.5 trillion barrels, Heavy Oil and bitumen will be a major energy source for the 21’st century as the availability of conventional oil declines. One third of the world’s oil is located in Canada in the form of heavy oil and bitumen. Turkey has about 3.5 billion bbl of heavy oil in southeastern part of the country. It is difficult to produce heavy oil cost-effectively because of its high viscosity and low gravity. It resists to flow, so engineers have had to undertake various methods to coax heavy oil out of the earth. However, with the new technologies developed in the last two decades, these reservoirs seem more attractive than ever, even the discounted prices of heavy oil is taken into account. Today, heavy oil activities are worldwide and are increasing in number more than ever particularly in countries having aging fields and heavy oil or bitumen reserves. The rise in world oil prices promises that substantial portions of otherwise neglected oil can be recovered with techniques which fall under the broad heading of IOR and/ or EOR (Improved Oil Recovery)/ EOR(Enhanced Oil Recovery). They are more crucial especially for the fields bearing heavy oil. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent IOR/EOR status and opportunities -and highlights the need for Turkey to address and incorporate IOR/EOR technology as one of its strategic plans towards the goal of increasing oil production and get a slice of the international petroleum business cake. It also presents a summary of ongoing IOR/EOR applications of TPAO at a pilot or full field scale.