Storage compliance in coupled CO 2 ‐EOR and storage

CO 2 storage compliance refers to the safe and consistent storage of a captured anthropogenic CO 2 slug in an underground geological structure. This paper investigates the storage compliance in coupled CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and storage projects. Storage compliance requires an oilfield operator to maintain sufficient CO 2 injection and storage capacities throughout an industrial‐scale CO 2 capture and EOR‐storage operation. We investigate the uncertainty in two operational parameters that may raise a compliance consideration: annual captured CO 2 from the power plant and CO 2 injection loss in the oilfield. The objective is to maintain sufficient CO 2 injection and storage capacities and maximize the economic benefits from the EOR‐storage operation. We formulate and optimize the storage compliance problem using the method of optimization with Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that appropriate adjustment of the water‐alternating‐gas (WAG) ratio increases both the compliance and the economic benefits. Also, a CO 2 storage back‐up in a saline aquifer allows the oilfield operator to implement more profitable EOR‐storage designs. A risk‐seeking operator may practice the saline aquifer back‐up option to simultaneously maximize the benefits and mitigate the risk of storage capacity shortage. Finally, EOR‐storage operation is less efficient than aquifer storage in terms of storage efficiency, and considerably more profitable in terms of tangible economic benefits.

[1]  Neeraj Gupta,et al.  Engineering and Economic Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration in Saline Formations , 2001 .

[2]  Joan M. Ogden,et al.  Techno-Economic Models for Carbon Dioxide Compression, Transport, and Storage & Correlations for Estimating Carbon Dioxide Density and Viscosity , 2006 .

[3]  J. J. Taber,et al.  Carbon Dioxide Flooding , 1992 .

[4]  Sally M. Benson,et al.  Relevance of underground natural gas storage to geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , 2002 .

[5]  Howard J. Herzog,et al.  ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF CO2 STORAGE AND SINK ENHANCEMENT OPTIONS , 2003 .

[6]  Christopher J. Jablonowski,et al.  A Survey of CO2-EOR and CO2 Storage Project Costs , 2010 .

[7]  Christopher J. Jablonowski,et al.  Gas Storage Facility Design Under Uncertainty , 2010 .

[8]  Duane A. McVay,et al.  Optimizing Gas-Storage Reservoir Performance , 2001 .

[9]  Kamy Sepehrnoori,et al.  Joint inversion of pressure and DC resistivity measurements , 2003 .

[10]  Guntis Moritis.  TAML refocuses on educating industry on multilaterals , 2003 .

[11]  Edward S. Rubin,et al.  An engineering-economic model of pipeline transport of CO2 with application to carbon capture and storage , 2008 .

[12]  Charles Kerans,et al.  Integrated Characterization of Carbonate Ramp Reservoirs Using Permian San Andres Formation Outcrop Analogs , 1994 .

[13]  E. M. Winter,et al.  Availability of depleted oil and gas reservoirs for disposal of carbon dioxide in the United States , 1993 .

[14]  James J. Dooley,et al.  A quantitative comparison of the cost of employing EOR-coupled CCS supplemented with secondary DSF storage for two large CO2 point sources , 2011 .

[15]  Arne Skauge,et al.  Methodology for Numerical Simulation With Cycle-Dependent Relative Permeabilities , 1998 .

[16]  G. Pariani,et al.  An approach to optimize economics in a west Texas CO2 flood , 1992 .

[17]  G. P. Kokolis,et al.  CO2 Minimum Miscibility Pressure: A Correlation for Impure CO2 Streams and Live Oil Systems , 1985 .

[18]  Anthony R. Kovscek,et al.  Geologic storage of carbon dioxide and enhanced oil recovery. II. Cooptimization of storage and recovery , 2005 .