A Case Study of Solar Energy Application in Enhanced Oil Recovery

Abstract Steam process is one of the most beneficial thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) techniques, which is applied for heavy oil reservoirs to decrease viscosity, thus increasing the production rate. Traditionally, producing steam for TEOR requires consumption of massive amount of natural gas. Issaran Field is one of the largest heavy and extra heavy oil field in the world that was discovered in 1981 in Egyptian Eastern Desert. The required demand of steam for Issaran field is 25,000 bbl./day at 550 ˚F and 1000 psi. The objective of this study is to design a parabolic trough collectors (PTC) plant, which fulfils the required steam consumption need by Issaran heavy oil field. Results showed that solar energy has the ability to generate steam at the same quality as gas-fired system. PTC plant will produce almost 44.3% of total required steam. The cost of steam produced will be 0.658 $/steam bbl instead of 3 $ from gas-fired system. The cost of producing oil from the hybrid system is in average 19.8 $/bbl instead of 25 $/bbl from gas-fired system.