EOR in Indonesia: past, present, and future

This paper presents the history of the application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods in Indonesia, its current status and its future. Various efforts to apply EOR methods have been carried out in the country either in laboratories, pilot projects, field trials, or full field scale operations during the last several decades. Indonesia was one of the very few countries who have experience in steamflooding operation. In terms of production, Duri Field where the steamflood has been applied for more than 30 years is still the largest steamflooding project in the world. The project has triggered other EOR methods such as gas injection, chemical injection, microbial injection, seismic vibration and electrical methods to develop for various mature fields. Currently, steamflooding is still the leading EOR method applied in Indonesia while chemical and gas injection are emerging as potential methods to improve oil recovery in the near future. Other methods such as microbial injection, seismic vibration, and electrical methods are still under research and field trial before their full implementation in the future.