The hydrocarbon industry finds itself in a stressed environment resulting from the following dilemmas.

• For decades to come the industry must reliably deliver the demand for hydrocarbons as energy and feedstock whilst realizing that reservoirs are more complex than anticipated and modeled.
• Oil and gas producers must control costs with a likely economic scenario of oil prices not returning to the highest levels of the past, while ensuring oil prices don't drop much below the current level of $55/bbl.
• The industry must be conscious of and find ways to reduce its environmental impact despite the economic pressures.

 Given these economic and environmental dilemmas, we ask the following:  over the next 30-50 years, how do we recover more oil and gas from difficult carbonate reservoirs, reach higher ultimate recoveries, and limit environmental impacts, while keeping the profit margin at a high enough level to ensure sufficient income for hydrocarbon-dependent economies?

The KAUST Research Conference: Recovery of Difficulty Hydrocarbons, hosted by the faculty and scientists of the KAUST Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center, will highlight and put to debate the overall scenario, and look for technical solutions to enhance recovery from complex oil & gas fields at low costs and environmentally sound with focus on the greater Middle East hydrocarbon province.

Attention will be given to all things improving the description, understanding and modeling of the storage and the flow of hydrocarbons in the subsurface (matrix storage, properties and flow, natural and artificial fractures, impact of pressure changes, etc.).

We expect participants to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the overall pressures on the industry.  The goal is to map out in a collaborative environment possible contributions from different technical fields for improved integrated reservoir development.  We wish to establish a view on what each technical field needs to focus on to provide overall progress for hydrocarbon reservoir development in the years to come.

The striking location of the KAUST campus at the shores of the Red Sea will provide an inspiring environment for in-depth discussions of both technical and societal aspects.

The conference website will be updated with more information shortly.