Storing CO2 With Next-Generation

CO2-EOR Technology

C arbon dioxide enhanced oil

recovery (CO2-EOR) has potential
for storing significant volumes of CO2
placed into proved reserves with exist-
ing primary- and secondary-oil-recov-
ery technologies. Therefore, 393 billion
such as viscosity reduction, oil swelling,
and improved reservoir contact also con-
tribute to more-efficient oil recovery.
emissions while increasing domestic oil bbl remains unrecovered as “technically Laboratory tests and reservoir mod-
production. The causes of suboptimal stranded” oil. eling show that very high oil-recovery
CO2 storage and oil-recovery efficiencies Much of this “stranded” oil is in efficiencies are possible theoretically by
by current CO2-EOR practices were east and central Texas (74 billion bbl), use of innovative applications of CO2-
examined to determine how a group of the midcontinent (66 billion bbl), and EOR. Under ideal conditions, gravity-sta-
advanced or “next-generation” CO2-EOR the Permian Basin of west Texas and ble laboratory corefloods that use high-
technologies could increase CO2-storage New Mexico (62 billion bbl). California, pressure CO2 have recovered essentially
volumes and oil recovery. Alaska, the Gulf Coast, and the Rockies all of the residual oil. Similarly, reser-
also have significant volumes of “strand- voir-simulation models that use innova-
ed” oil. tive well-placement and process designs
Introduction Not all of the remaining domestic to facilitate contacting the majority of
A six-part method was used to assess oil resource is technically amenable to the reservoir’s pore volume with CO2 also
CO2 storage and the EOR potential of CO2-EOR. Favorable reservoir properties show that high oil-recovery efficiencies
domestic oil reservoirs. These steps were for miscible CO2-EOR include sufficient- are possible.
assembling and updating the major-oil- ly deep formations with lighter (high- However, field performance of CO2-
reservoirs database; calculating the min- er-gravity) oil. Some of the shallower EOR projects has not exhibited the high
imum miscibility pressure for applying oil reservoirs with heavier (lower-grav- oil-recovery efficiency shown in labora-
CO2-EOR; screening reservoirs favorable ity) oil may be amenable to immiscible tory tests. Geologically complex reser-
for CO2-EOR by use of the minimum CO2-EOR. voir settings, combined with lack of reli-
miscibility pressure and other criteria; able performance information or pro-
calculating oil recovery from applying Impediments to Current cess-control capability during the CO2
next-generation CO2-EOR technology; CO2-EOR Performance flood, highlight the challenges of opti-
applying updated costs in an economic Large volumes of oil are left stranded mum oil recovery by use of CO2-EOR.
model; and performing economic and after primary- and secondary-oil-recov- Field data show that currently practiced
sensitivity analyses to understand how ery methods are completed. This includes CO2-EOR technology recovers only 5 to
the combined effects of technology and oil that is bypassed because of poor water- 15% of a reservoir’s OOIP compared with
oil prices influence the results of apply- flood sweep efficiency; oil that is physical- theoretically possible oil recoveries of
ing next-generation CO2-EOR and CO2- ly unconnected to a wellbore; and, most more than 20% of OOIP by use of next-
storage technology. importantly, oil that is trapped as residual generation CO2-EOR technology.
oil by viscous, capillary, and interfacial- The causes of less-than-optimum
Domestic-Oil-Resource Base tension forces in the pore space. past performance and modest oil recov-
The USA has a large oil-resource base, The main mechanism by which CO2- eries by currently used CO2-EOR technol-
on the order of 597 billion bbl of oil EOR can recover this trapped oil is by ogies include the following.
originally in place (OOIP). Approximate- creating, with the assistance of pressure, ◗ Insufficient injection of CO2
ly one-third of this oil-resource base, miscibility between the residual oil and ◗ Poor sweep efficiency
204 billion bbl, has been recovered or the injected CO2. Additional mechanisms ◗ Poor displacement efficiency
◗ Lack of CO2 conformance
◗ Inadequate reservoir characteriza-
This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights
tion and project surveillance
of paper SPE 139717, “Storing CO2 With Next-Generation CO2-EOR Technology,” by
R.C. Ferguson, SPE, V.A. Kuuskraa, SPE, and T.S. Van Leeuwen, SPE, Advanced Next-Generation CO2-EOR
Resources International, and D. Remson, US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology
Technology Laboratory, prepared for the 2010 SPE International Conference on CO2 Four individual technologies were exam-
Capture, Storage, and Utilization, New Orleans, 10–12 November. The paper has not ined that aim at improving oil recovery
been peer reviewed. and CO2-storage potential.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.jptonline.org.

JPT • JANUARY 2012 61

 Option 1: Increasing CO2 Injection.
This option involves increasing CO2-
injection volumes to 1.5 hydrocarbon
pore volumes (HCPV). Higher HCPV of
injected CO2 enable contacting more
residual oil in the reservoir. However,
higher volumes of CO2 injection lead to
longer overall project length and high-
er gross CO2/oil ratios. Field opera-
tors must consider this option carefully
when evaluating its cost effectiveness.
In the past, the combination of high
CO2 costs and low oil prices led opera-
tors to use small-volume injections of
CO2 (traditionally 0.4 HCPV) to maxi-
mize profitability. This low-volume CO2-
injection strategy was selected because
field operators had very limited capabil-
ity to observe and control the movement
of the injected CO2 in the reservoir. With
adequate volumes of lower-cost CO2 and
higher oil prices, CO2-EOR economics
now favors use of higher volumes of CO2.
However, these increased CO2 volumes
would need to be managed and con-
trolled to ensure that they contact, dis-
place, and recover additional residual oil
rather than just circulate through a high-
permeability interval of the reservoir.
Option 2: Innovative Flood Design and
Well Placement. This option assumes
that optimized well design and place-
ment would contact more of the residu-
al oil in a reservoir. The well-design and
placement objective is to ensure that
both the previously highly-waterflood-
swept (with low residual oil) portions of
the reservoir and the poorly-waterflood-
swept (with higher residual oil) portions
of the reservoir are contacted optimally
by injected CO2. To model Option 2, it
was assumed that one new vertical pro-
duction well would be added to each pat-
tern targeting previously bypassed or
poorly contacted portions of the reser-
voir. (The model assumes that each CO2-
EOR pattern already has one production
and one injection well.)
Option 3: Improving the Mobility
Ratio. This option assumes that increas-
ing the viscosity of the injected water
(as part of the CO2-water-alternating-
gas process) is achieved by use of poly-
mers or other agents. Note that the vis-
cosity of the CO2 was left unchanged,
although increasing the viscosity of CO2
with CO2-philic agents theoretically
could improve performance further. To
model Option 3, it was assumed that the
viscosity of injected water was increased
to 3 cp, or three times the viscosity of
water. The authors plan to calibrate the
model so that the viscosity of the inject-
ed water will match the viscosity of the
oil, creating a mobility ratio of 1.0.
Option 4: Extending Miscibility.
This option assumes that “miscibility
extenders” are added to the CO2-EOR
process to reduce minimum-miscibil-
ity-pressure requirements by 250  psi.
Examples of miscibility-enhancing
agents include addition of liquefied
petroleum gas to the CO2, although this
would lead to a more costly injection
process; addition of H2S or other sulfur

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62 JPT • JANUARY 2012

compounds, although this may lead to
higher-cost operations; and use of other
(to be developed) miscibility-pressure-
or interfacial-tension-reduction agents.
Successful application of Option  4
could enable 21 previously immiscible
fields to become suitable for miscible
CO2-EOR operations.
ciated costs, but when applied correct-
ly, each can improve the performance
of CO2-EOR floods beyond current best
practices. Nationwide, next-genera-
tion technologies increase technically
recoverable oil from 83 to 128 billion
bbl. These technologies also improve
economic CO2-storage capacity from 9
to 11.5 billion tonnes. Each of these
next-generation technologies provides
an opportunity for future research and
development and will help use and
store CO2 while producing domestic
crude oil. JPT

Option 5: Integrating Application of

Next-Generation Options. The max-
imum benefit, in terms of increased
oil recovery, accrues when these four
individual next-generation technology
options are applied jointly as part of a
highly instrumented and process-con-
trolled reservoir-characterization and
-surveillance strategy.

Technically and Economically

Recoverable Resources
A reservoir-by-reservoir assessment of
1,715 large oil reservoirs that are amena-
ble to CO2-EOR (extrapolated to nation-
al totals) shows that a significant vol-
ume, 128 billion bbl, of domestic oil
may be recoverable with the application
of next-generation CO2-EOR technolo-
gies, adding 128 billion bbl of technical-
ly recoverable oil to domestic supplies.
The Permian Basin of west Texas
and New Mexico, with its world-class
size, favorable geology, and carbonate
reservoirs, offers the largest volume of
technically recoverable oil resource by
use of CO2-EOR. In addition, signifi-
cant potential exists in east and central
Texas, the midcontinent area, the Gulf
Coast, and California.
The economically recoverable base
case evaluated the next-generation CO2-
EOR potential with an oil price of USD
70/bbl (constant, real) and a CO2 cost
of USD 45/tonne (USD 2.38/Mcf) (con-
stant and real, delivered at pressure to
the field). In the base case, 57.9 billion
bbl of incremental oil became economi-
cally recoverable by applying next-gen-
eration CO2-EOR technology.

Summary
To take advantage of the theoretical
potential that CO2-EOR has in unlocking
the large “stranded” domestic resource
base, each of the individual technolo-
gies must be applied on a customized
basis, specific to the reservoirs. Each of
the technologies has incremental asso-

JPT • JANUARY 2012 63