PI-14-08 (English)

Press information
Wintershall presents EOR technologies
at the “Oil and Gas West Asia”
Wintershall experts in Muscat give insight into current research
31 March 2014
Stefan Leunig
PI-14-08
Tel.
+49 561 301-3301
Fax
+49 561 301-1321
[email protected]
www.wintershall.com
projects for enhancing oil and gas recovery
Muscat/Oman. At the 2014 Oil and Gas West Asia (OGWA)
exhibition and conference, Wintershall is from today presenting
current technologies that enable more efficient production of crude
oil and natural gas, including from largely developed, more mature
hydrocarbon deposits. At the specialist SPE EOR Conference
accompanying the trade exhibition in Muscat, several Wintershall
experts are presenting current projects from Wintershall’s research
programme. Across the three days of the conference, experts,
scientists and decision-makers from all over the world will be
discussing the latest developments, initiatives and technologies for
enhancing oil and gas recovery.
The focus of the conference clearly shows that solutions for more
efficiently utilising oil and gas reserves are also in increasing
demand in the Middle East. Firstly, this is partly due to the rapidly
increasing energy requirements in countries within the Middle East:
the World Energy Outlook published by the International Energy
Agency (IEA) predicts that the Middle East region will develop into
the world’s third largest oil consumer by 2035. Secondly, the
reserves in the Gulf region are becoming increasingly difficult to
recover. “The time of easily recoverable reserves is over – especially
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in the Middle East,” explains Martin Bachmann, Wintershall’s
executive board member responsible for exploration and production.
“That is why we at Wintershall are open to new collaborations in
which we can apply our expertise to the development of technically
demanding fields.” Wintershall is therefore in line with the current
trend. Based on existing resources of 10,000 billion barrels, the
latest IEA report estimates that a 10-percent increase of the
worldwide recovery rate using EOR would potentially provide an
additional 1,000 billion barrels. That would be four times the
reserves in Saudi Arabia.
One of the main research projects in recent years is, for example,
the biopolymer Schizophyllan, which is being jointly developed by
Wintershall and its parent company, BASF. The basis for this is
provided by a natural fungus, Schizophyllum commune, which grows
in forests around the world. If the fungus is fed with sugar and
oxygen it produces a gel-like substance that can be deployed as a
thickening agent when recovering oil. The biopolymer is fully
biodegradable and thickens the water that is forced into the reservoir
to extract the oil. The thickened water can push more oil out from the
rock pores. More oil can be recovered. In the case of Schizophyllan,
this amounts to about ten percent depending on the reservoir. The
use of the biopolymer is currently being tested for the first time in an
oil field in northern Germany. Wintershall is also looking for technical
cooperation possibilities in the Middle East Region in order to test
Schizophyllan in a second full field application.
Greater engagement planned in the Middle East region
With its contribution to the SPE EOR Conference, Wintershall is
underlining the special importance of the Middle East for the
company’s strategic orientation. Wintershall has been increasingly
active in the region for some years now and is planning to expand its
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upstream activities there. For this purpose, in 2010 the company
opened a regional representative office in Abu Dhabi. In June 2012,
Wintershall signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi National Oil
Company (ADNOC) and the Austrian OMV company regarding the
appraisal of the sour gas and condensate field at Shuwaihat. As
operator Wintershall is relying on its extremely high HSE standards
and more than 40 years of experience in the safe development and
production of sour gas fields. At the beginning of 2014, Wintershall
also agreed with Mubadala Petroleum from Abu Dhabi to work
together on projects in the Middle East and North Africa.
Wintershall’s second regional focus is provided by Qatar: the
company is involved in exploring the Al Radeef field off the coast
there. This is situated close to the so-called “North Field”, which is
the world’s largest crude oil field. Together with Qatar Petroleum and
further partners, Wintershall recently managed to prove the
presence of 70 billion cubic metres of natural gas in the Khuff
Formation there.
Wintershall Holding GmbH, based in Kassel, Germany, is a wholly owned
subsidiary of BASF in Ludwigshafen. The company has been active in the
extraction of natural resources for 120 years, and in the exploration and
production of crude oil and natural gas for over 80 years. Wintershall focuses on
selected core regions, where the company has built up a high level of regional and
technological expertise. These are Europe, Russia, North Africa, South America,
and increasingly the Middle East region. The company wants to expand its
business further with exploration and production, selected partnerships, innovation
and technological competence. The company employs more than 2,500 staff
worldwide from 40 nations and is now Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas
producer.
Wintershall Shaping the future!
You can find more information on the Internet at www.wintershall.com or follow
us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
PI-14-08

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