Modelling helps recovery

A joint venture between researchers at Texas A&M University and the US Department of Energy has produced a new computer tool that will increase recovery of up to 218 billion barrels of by-passed oil remaining in mature US domestic oil fields. The US's current proven reserve is 21 billion barrels.

More than two-thirds of all the oil discovered in America to date remains in the ground and is economically unrecoverable with current technology. About 218 billion barrels of it, a volume approaching the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia, lies at depths of less than 5,000 feet. This by-passed oil represents a huge target for the roughly 7,000 independent producers active in the thousands of mature US fields which cumulatively account for a significant share of the country's crude oil supply.

But much by-passed oil lies in difficult-to-access pockets. And predicting the location and size of these deposits is costly because it often requires complex computing capabilities. Many independent producers aren't able to commit the personnel or buy the expensive supercomputer time required to build and operate the models needed to find these overlooked stores of oil.