- This article is about stimulating production from conventional oil fields. For oil-sand information, see oil sands.
Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated
EOR) is the implementation of various techniques for increasing the amount of
crude oil that can be extracted from an
oil field. Enhanced oil recovery is also called improved oil recovery or tertiary recovery (as opposed to primary and secondary recovery). According to the US Department of Energy, there are three primary techniques for EOR: thermal recovery, gas injection, and chemical injection. Sometimes the term quaternary recovery is used to refer to more advanced, speculative, EOR techniques. Using EOR, 30 to 60 percent, or more, of the reservoir's original oil can be extracted, compared with 20 to 40 percent using primary and secondary recovery.