Cost-effective CO 2 sequestration through enhanced oil recovery

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

12-1-2001

Abstract

The five-year long United Nations campaign for the reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere culminated in the Kyoto protocol of 1997. Since this Kyoto conference attended by nearly 160 nations, sequestration of carbon dioxide from industrial flue gases and its storage and/or utilization have been receiving significantly enhanced attention. According to the US Department of Energy, very little research and development has been done in the United States on promising options that might address CO 2 capture, reuse and storage technologies. An exception to this is the utilization of CO 2 for enhanced oil recovery. Over a decade of industrial experience has accumulated at more than 70 enhanced oil recovery sites around the world where CO 2 is injected to improve oil recovery from waterflooded reservoirs. The accumulated experience in the US, where about 32 million tons of CO 2 per year are being utilized in EOR, has amply demonstrated that the retention of CO 2 in the reservoir is very high when the original pressure is not exceeded. Thus, CO 2 injected enhanced oil recovery presents itself as a mature field-tested technology for sequestering CO 2 at a low net cost due to the revenues from recovered oil and gas. Much of the CO 2-EOR experience to date in the US involves the use of high-purity carbon dioxide for conducting miscible floods in conventional crude oil reservoirs. Due to the high costs associated with supplying high-purity CO 2 to the reservoir, this process has seen limited commercial success. However, the past research at LSU and elsewhere has amply demonstrated that impure CO 2 was also effective in enhancing oil recoveries. This makes the abundant supply of flue gases from fossil-fuel combustion operations a viable and cost-effective option without the need for separating CO 2 from the flue gas mixtures. This paper attempts to review and synthesize the literature dealing with geologic sequestration of CO 2 in EOR projects. The available data are analyzed both from EOR and CO 2 sequestration points of view.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Proceedings of the Engineering Technology Conference on Energy

First Page

217

Last Page

225

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS