| Authors |
Y. Ghomian, SPE, K. Sepehrnoori, SPE, G.A. Pope, SPE, The University of
Texas at Austin
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| Source |
SPE International Conference on CO2 Capture, Storage, and Utilization,
10-12 November 2010,
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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| Preview |
Abstract
A compositional reservoir simulation study was performed to investigate
enhanced oil recovery and sequestration of carbon dioxide. Maximizing profit
from oil recovery and maximizing the amount of carbon dioxide stored in the
reservoir are competing goals and both will be important in the future. Both
depend on large number of parameters and the strategy used to flood the
reservoir. A very large number of simulations are required to understand and
evaluate different strategies for each reservoir and for each realization of
the properties of a particular reservoir. In this study the effects of variety
of flood design variables on both EOR and sequestration objectives were
investigated in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs separately. Experimental
design and the method of response surfaces were used as tools to perform this
study in a systematic and efficient way. Design parameters such as well
spacing, different injection and production schemes, various well control
techniques, and different mobility control methods were selected for study. By
applying fractional factorial design and D-optimal methods, simulation cases
were selected to study the effect of the parameters for each scenario. The
amount of CO2 stored at the end of the oil recovery process and the net present
value of the each sensitivity case were considered as the two decision
criteria. Economic analysis for all of these cases were performed based on the
necessity to account for CO2 storage factors such as capture and transportation
costs, and possible CO2 tax credits for storage. Response surface analysis was
utilized to determine the best strategy based upon these decision criteria for
different type of the reservoirs. The result using this approach was similar to
the result from an exhaustive simulation study, but took much less computation
time and effort. An approach that is both realistic and feasible, such as the
one used in this study, will be needed for future simulation studies because of
the increasing importance of CO2 geological storage, the extremely wide variety
of reservoir conditions of potential interests, the need to understand and
reduce uncertainties, the need to find better operational strategies, and the
uncertainty in future economic and regulatory incentives.
Introduction
Sequestration of carbon dioxide in geological formations is the most direct
carbon management strategy for long term reduction of anthropogenic CO2 from
the atmosphere. There are several options for storing CO2 underground.
Injecting CO2 into deep saline aquifers is one of the main CO2 options for
future large scale projects. Injecting CO2 into the mature oil and gas fields
is another option for storing CO2. Most of the aspects of CO2 injection into
the reservoirs for the purpose of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) have been known
for decades (Wang et al., 1984; Khan et al., 1992; Lim et al., 1992; Guler et
al., 2001). Some of the advantages of storing CO2 in oil reservoirs compared to
aquifers include the following: (1) the known geological seal of oil reservoirs
(2) by the time CO2 is injected into an oil reservoir for EOR, extensive
characterization and performance data have already been obtained (3) the
existing infrastructure (4) the revenue from the oil production.
Currently, the oil production from CO2-EOR projects is about 205,000 bbl/d
(Moritis, 2004). If we assume that an average of 10 bbl of oil are produced per
ton of CO2 injected (Jessen et al., 2005), then roughly 20,500 tons of CO2 are
injected per day into the oil reservoirs. There is currently a shortage of
available CO2 sources near candidate oil reservoirs (Moritis, 2007). In EOR
projects the goal is to make a profit by minimizing the use of CO2 and reusing
the gas once it has been produced for the reservoir undergoing the CO2 flood
whereas with coupled EOR and sequestration, the goal is to maximize the storage
of the CO2 and recovery as much oil as possible economically. To a large
extent, these appear to be competing goals especially since the engineering and
operational design parameters are substantially different.
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