Field Scale Co-Optimisation of CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery and Storage Through Swag Injection Using Laboratory Estimated Relative Permeabilities

Author(s):  
Fatemeh Kamali ◽  
Furqan Le-Hussain
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-750
Author(s):  
Sébastien Chailleux

Analyzing the case of France, this article aims to explain how the development of enhanced oil recovery techniques over the last decade contributed to politicizing the subsurface, that is putting underground resources at the center of social unrest and political debates. France faced a decline of its oil and gas activity in the 1990s, followed by a renewal with subsurface activity in the late 2000s using enhanced oil recovery techniques. An industrial demonstrator for carbon capture and storage was developed between 2010 and 2013 , while projects targeting unconventional oil and gas were pushed forward between 2008 and 2011 before eventually being canceled. We analyze how the credibility, legitimacy, and governance of those techniques were developed and how conflicts made the role of the subsurface for energy transition the target of political choices. The level of political and industrial support and social protest played a key role in building project legitimacy, while the types of narratives and their credibility determined the distinct trajectories of hydraulic fracturing and carbon capture and storage in France. The conflicts over enhanced oil recovery techniques are also explained through the critical assessment of the governance framework that tends to exclude civil society stakeholders. We suggest that these conflicts illustrated a new type of politicization of the subsurface by merging geostrategic concerns with social claims about governance, ecological demands about pollution, and linking local preoccupations to global climate change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 239 ◽  
pp. 167-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Roefs ◽  
Michele Moretti ◽  
Kris Welkenhuysen ◽  
Kris Piessens ◽  
Tine Compernolle

SPE Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 1227-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Kamali ◽  
Furqan Hussain ◽  
Yildiray Cinar

Summary This paper presents experimental observations that delineate co-optimization of carbon dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and storage. Pure supercritical CO2 is injected into a homogeneous outcrop sandstone sample saturated with oil and immobile water under various miscibility conditions. A mixture of hexane and decane is used for the oil phase. Experiments are run at 70°C and three different pressures (1,300, 1,700, and 2,100 psi). Each pressure is determined by use of a pressure/volume/temperature simulator to create immiscible, near-miscible, and miscible displacements. Oil recovery, differential pressure, and compositions are recorded during experiments. A co-optimization function for CO2 storage and incremental oil is defined and calculated using the measured data for each experiment. A compositional reservoir simulator is then used to examine gravity effects on displacements and to derive relative permeabilities. Experimental observations demonstrate that almost similar oil recovery is achieved during miscible and near-miscible displacements whereas approximately 18% less recovery is recorded in the immiscible displacement. More heavy component (decane) is recovered in the miscible and near-miscible displacements than in the immiscible displacement. The co-optimization function suggests that the near-miscible displacement yields the highest CO2-storage efficiency and displays the best performance for coupling CO2 EOR and storage. Numerical simulations show that, even on the laboratory scale, there are significant gravity effects in the near-miscible and miscible displacements. It is revealed that the near-miscible and miscible recoveries depend strongly on the endpoint effective CO2 permeability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navpreet Singh ◽  
Hemanta Kumar Sarma

Abstract Low salinity waterflooding has been an area of great interest for researchers for almost over three decades for its perceived "simplicity," cost-effectiveness, and the potential benefits it offers over the other enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. There have been numerous laboratory studies to study the effect of injection water salinity on oil recovery, but there are only a few cases reported worldwide where low salinity water flooding (LSW) has been implemented on a field scale. In this paper, we have summarized the results of our analyses for some of those successful field cases for both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Most field cases of LSW worldwide are in sandstone reservoirs. Although there have been a lot of experimental studies on the effect of water salinity on recovery in carbonate reservoirs, only a few cases of field-scale implementation have been reported for the LSW in carbonate reservoirs. The incremental improvement expected from the LSW depends on various factors like the brine composition (injection and formation water), oil composition, pressure, temperature, and rock mineralogy. Therefore, all these factors should be considered, together with some specially designed fit-for-purpose experimental studies need to be performed before implementing the LSW on a field scale. The evidence of the positive effect of LSW at the field scale has mostly been observed from near well-bore well tests and inter-well tests. However, there are a few cases such Powder River Basin in the USA and Bastrykskoye field in Russia, where the operators had unintentionally injected less saline water in the past and were pleasantly surprised when the analyses of the historical data seemed to attribute the enhanced oil recovery due to the lower salinity of the injected water. We have critically analyzed all the major field cases of LSW. Our paper highlights some of the key factors that worked well in the field, which showed a positive impact of LSW and a comparative assessment of the incremental recovery realized from the reservoir visa-a-vis the expectations generated from the laboratory-based experimental studies. It is envisaged that such a comparison could be more meaningful and reliable. Also, it identifies the likely uncertainties (and their sources) associated during the field implementation of LSW.


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