Year: 2025 | Month: December | Volume: 12 | Issue: 12 | Pages: 718-733
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20251274
Philosophy Ontology and Epistemology of Enhanced Oil Recovery in the Era of Data - Driven and Sustainable Reservoir Management
Romi Djafar1, Hasim2, Mahludin Baruadi3, Weny J.A Musa4
1,2,3,4Program Studi Ilmu Lingkungan, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
1Doctoral Program in Environmental Science, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Gorontalo, Indonesia
2,3,4Postgraduate Program, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Gorontalo, Indonesia
Corresponding Author: Romi Djafar
ABSTRACT
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has evolved from a collection of empirical techniques into a multi-scale knowledge system that links molecular design, pore-scale physics, reservoir-scale flow, and global deployment strategies. This article offers a philosophical, ontological, and epistemological reading of contemporary EOR research by integrating earlier reviews with 2020–2025 literature on chemical, thermal, gas-based, and data-driven methods. Ontologically, EOR is understood as an assemblage of entities and processes—polymers, surfactants, biopolymers, nanoparticles, foams, emulsions, supercritical CO₂, steam, catalysts, rock textures, fractures, and digital representations—mapped to their operative scales and mechanisms. Epistemologically, EOR knowledge is produced and validated through corefloods, microfluidics, spectroscopy, numerical simulation, machine-learning workflows, risk-assessment frameworks, and global data syntheses for EOR and CO₂ storage.
Chemical EOR is revisited through high-salinity-resistant polymers, amphiphilic and bio-based polymers, “green” surfactants, emulsions, and polymer–nanoparticle hybrids. Thermal and catalytic methods for heavy oil focus on aquathermolysis, in-situ combustion catalysts, hybrid downhole heaters, and additive-enhanced steam. Gas-based EOR is analyzed in the context of CO₂ mobility control, foam stabilization, smart water, carbonated nanofluids, and integrated value assessment of CCUS. The article concludes with a research agenda for ontology-driven digital twins and epistemically robust decision-making that integrates oil recovery, uncertainty, and decarbonization.
Keywords: Enhanced oil recovery; EOR ontology; EOR epistemology; CO₂ EOR and CCUS; chemical and thermal EOR; data-driven reservoir engineering; sustainable oil recovery
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