Chapter 15 Summary and Analysis

Eventually, free-flowing oil in Saudi Arabia will stop and secondary recovery efforts will be the only alternative remaining for Saudi Arabia. The super-giants, like Ghawar, will not be part of this secondary effort, because the use of water injection programs renders secondary efforts useless. A Society of Petroleum Engineers paper provides a case study of secondary recovery. The case study determines that relatively large quantities of oil left behind can be recovered, tertiary recovery efforts rarely recreate high oil flows;, and the best approach to steadily increasing water cuts is to choke back a well's rate of production.

During a visit to Saudi Aramco headquarters in 2003, the author, along with other industry visitors, is told that Saudi Aramco is invoking fuzzy logic to ensure maximum oil and gas recovery. Using an example of whether a 45-year-old man is young or old...