KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) expects to increase its oil recovery from the existing 35 per cent to 45 per cent by 2018, in line with the full integration of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC).
According to Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd head of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme technology Norhayati Hashim, the target will mainly be supported by Petronas’ in-house geo-imaging technology, one of the components of the company’s EOR development project.
“EOR has the opportunity to further improve oil recovery to more than 45 per cent for Malaysia in order to ensure sustainability in the country’s national oil production,” she said in her presentation entitled “Technology for New Lease of Life” at the recently-held International Petroleum Technology Conference.
“We have deployed the pilot for our new form of geo-imaging technology at two of our wells in Peninsular Malaysia as of December 2014. We are still waiting for the overall results but one of the wells has yielded results that matched perfectly with our prognosis.” Norhayati said.
She added that the results of the experiment are expected within the first quarter of next year and if successful, the new technology will be beneficial across Petronas’ upstream endeavours, particularly in mature oil fields.
“Geo-imaging may help us discover oil in mature fields that we have not seen before as it allows us to look beyond the gas cloud, which can severely deteriorate the seismic data quality from deeper reflectors.”
“This is especially beneficial in Malaysia where we have a lot of mature fields,” she said, adding that eventually Petronas would look into using the technology across all fields.
According to Norhayati, geo-imaging technology and the company’s overall EOR segment is not here to compete with existing service providers like Schlumberger, but for the overall benefit and growth of the company.
“We don’t do technology for technology’s sake as we are using the technology to improve our oil recovery, which in light of the falling global crude prices, has been very beneficial. It is about research and development and creating new technologies, but it is mostly about generating for Petronas more business over the long term,” she said.