Motivating enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects in Vietnam - A regulatory approach

Tóm tắt

While new oil fields are becoming difficult and expensive to explore, countries and companies have started to look at other unconventional sources to secure hydrocarbon reserves. One of such unconventional sources is oil itself left stranded in the reservoir, which can be recovered by enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Vietnam is now in a similar position as it sees EOR the opportunity to increase the country’s oil reserves apart from new projects abroad, where commercial potential might be limited amid a number of technical, economic and regulatory constraints. This paper therefore will look at EOR issues in Vietnam, starting with a discussion about EOR activities, followed by examining the features of an EOR project: which techniques can be used and which economic consequences might prevail. The paper will present the modelling results for a typical project in Vietnam to assess the impact of various policy factors on the project’s profitability. Then three steps to improve the fiscal terms for EOR projects are proposed, including both the short-term quick fixes as well as the long-term changes in policies and regulations.