Fundamentals of CO2-Enhanced

Oil Recovery
Vanessa Nuez-Lopez
Gulf Coast Carbon Center, Bureau of Economic Geology
Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin

Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS)

Birmingham, Alabama
June 7-16, 2015

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) is

Oil recovery by
injection of fluids not
commonly present in
the reservoir
Excludes pressure
maintenance or
waterflooding
Not necessarily
tertiary recovery.

Recovery Mechanisms
Primary
Recovery

Artificial Lift

Natural Flow

Pump - Gas Lift - Etc.

Conventional
Recovery

Secondary
Recovery

Pressure
Maintenance

Waterflood

Water - Gas Reinjection

Tertiary
Recovery
Thermal

EOR using CO2

Enhanced
Recovery

Chemical
Solvent

Other

Source: Adapted from the Oil & Gas Journal, Apr. 23, 1990

Typical Production: Weyburn Unit (Midale Sand)

CO2-EOR (The basics)

What is it?

CO2-EOR is a technology that targets the residual oil in depleted oil

reservoirs by the injection of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Where is it applied?

In depleted light-oil reservoirs that have gone through

primary recovery (natural flow) and, in most cases,
secondary recovery (mainly waterflooding).

How does it work?

CO2 is a solvent: it mixes with
the oil

Oil expands (swells)

Oil viscosity is reduced
Interfacial tension (IT) disappears*

What holds the fluids in a capillary?

air and water
interface

molecules
near
interface

air, water and oil

Different interfaces curve
differently!
To move, have to overcome
interfacial tension.

Some everyday effects of capillarity

Images from
Wikipedia

The process
Recycling
Water Pump

U.S Department of Energy - NETL

Surface Infrastructure
Production well

Production manifold

Injection well
Separator

U.S Department of Energy - NETL

Surface Infrastructure
CO2 recycling facility

CO2 compressor

U.S Department of Energy - NETL

From Melzer Consulting

CO2-EOR Case Studies

Active World, U.S., and Permian Basin CO2 EOR Projects

Current CO2 Infrastructure in the US is EOR

Dominant
U.S. CO2-EOR Operations, CO2 Sources: 2014

Major US CO2 pipelines

ARI 2012

CO2-EOR Production: Historical

CO2 Supply Shortage

Recent Expansion of Natural CO2 Supplies for EOR

Denver Unit of the Wasson Field, West Texas

More than
120 million
incremental
barrels
through
2008

Typical EOR Production

Specific CO2 Floods

Sundown Slaughter

14000

Actual Oil

18% HCPV
CO Injection
2

Began (Nov. '83)

CO2 Injection

16000

BOPD

1,000

Means San Andres Unit

18000

(From Folger and Guillot, 1996)

Began (Jull. 92)

CO2 Injection

Barrels/Day

10,000

12000
10000

Recovery, % OOIP
P+S
To Date 37.2

8000

Continued
Waterflood

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

6000

Continued Waterflood

2000
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

1994

Year

Year

To Date 45.2

EOR
6.7

Ultimate 47.2 17 (17)*

*Original EOR Estimate

40000
25% HCPV
CO Injection
2

30000

20000
10000

Continued Waterflood

0
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

Year

Recovery, % OOIP

Began (Feb. '81)

CO2 Injection

BOPD

50000

P+S

1500

BOPD

60000

Ford Geraldine Unit

2000

Recovery, % OOIP

CO2 Injection

70000

Seminole San Andres Unit

Began (Mar. '83)

80000

3.2

Ultimate 38.7 11 (7)*

*Original EOR Estimate

4000
100
1987

EOR

1000

P+S

EOR

To Date 21.8

Ultimate 21.8 15 (8)*

46% HCPV
CO2 Injection

*Original EOR Estimate

20 MCF/D CO2
Source Secured

500

End of
Water Injection
0
1978

1980

1982

Continued Waterflood
1984

1986

Year

1988

1990

1992

CO2 Injection volume matters!

NETL, 2008

CO2 Utilization Ratio

Gross

feet

md

feet

API

cp

%HCPV

%OOIP

Net

MCF/STB

MCF/STB

11.1
9.0
15.2
18.0
6.5
9.2
9.7
9.5

2.4
6.3
5.0
11.0
7.8
4.6
5.0
6.5
3.2

1985
1985
1981
1983
1972
1982
1986
1972
1981

15.6
13.0

8.0
10.0

1974
1986

6.0
12.6
10.7
6.1

1981
1975
1983
1983
1981
1981
1976
1978
1982

field scale projects

Dollarhide
East Vacuum
Ford Geraldine
Means
North Cross
Northeast Purdy
Rangely
SACROC (17 pattern)
SACROC (14 pattern)
South Welch
Twofreds
Wertz

TX
NM
TX
TX
TX
OK
CO
TX
TX
TX
TX
WY

Trip. Chert
Oolitic dolomite
Sandstone
Dolomite
Trip. Chert
Sandstone
Sandstone
Carbonate
Carbonate
Dolomite
Sandstone
Sandstone

7,800
4,400
2,680
4,400
5,400
8,200
6,500
6,400
6,400
4,850
4,820
6,200

120
101
83
100
106
148
160
130
130
92
104
165

17.0
11.7
23.0
9.0
22.0
13.0
15.0
9.4
9.4
12.8
20.3
10.7

9
11
64
20
5
44
5 to 50
3
3
13.9
33.4
16

48
71
23
54
60
40
110
139
139
132
18
185

40
38
40
29
44
35
32
41
41
34
36
35

0.4
1.0
1.4
6.0
0.4
1.5
1.6
0.4
0.4
2.3
1.4
1.3

30
30
30
55
40
30
30
30
30
25
40
60

14.0
8.0
17.0
7.1
22.0
7.5
7.5
7.5
9.8
7.6
15.6
10.0

OK
MS
NM
NM
CA
LA
TX
LA
WY

Sandstone
Sandstone
Anhydritic dolomite
Dolomitic sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone
Dolomitic sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone

1,950
10,400
4,050
3,700
9,200
8,180
4985
13,000
3,000

95
248
90
90
235
183
105
225
104

17.0
23.4
10.0
11.0
15.0
26.4
12.0
26.0
19.5

57
75
11.2
13.9
9
230
8
1200
28.5

21
30
49
23
136
15
75
186
22

47
39
36
36
36
32
32
33
39

2.1
0.4
0.8
0.8
0.5
0.9
2.0
0.3
1.4

35
160
30
30
63
19
26
24
30

14.0
21.0
8.2
17.7
15.0
20.0
20.0
8.7
12.9

producing pilots

Garber
Little Creek
Majamar
Majamar
North Coles Levee
Quarantine Bay
Slaughter Estate
Weeks Island
West Sussex

27.0
11.6
8.1
7.4
16.7
7.9
8.9

2.4
3.7
3.3

Field Projects ==>

11.7

6.3

Pilot Projects ==>

10.4
12.5
8.9

6.3
6.4
6.0

Gross

Net

AVERAGE
MEDIAN
AVERAGE
MEDIAN

US Domestic Oil Resource Base

ROIP Stranded - 400 Billion Barrels

(of 596 billion barrels OOIP)
Ferguson et al., 2009

CO2-EOR Potential in the U.S.

Gulf Coast CO2-EOR Potential Distribution

4.7 billion barrel incremental oil
2.6 billion tons storage potential

Nuez-Lopez, 2008

Is CO2 stored during EOR? Yes!

*Stored volumes do not include losses during Recycle

***Retention is defined as a percentage of purchased volumes

Carbon Sequestration Potential in Oil Reservoirs

DOE Regional Sequestration Partnerships

PCOR

BIG SKY

MRCSP
WESTCARB
MGSC

SWP

SECARB

Major CCUS Demonstration Projects

Project Locations & Cost Share
CCPI

FutureGen 2.0
Large-Scale Testing of Oxy-Combustion w/ CO2
Capture & Sequestration in Saline Formation
~$1.3B Total; ~$1.0B DOE
SALINE 1.3M TPY 2016 start

ICCS Area 1
FutureGen 2.0

Archer Daniels Midland

CO2 Capture from Ethanol Plant
CO2 Stored in Saline Reservoir
$208M Total; $141M DOE
SALINE ~1 M TPY 2013 start

Summit TX Clean Energy

Commercial Demo of Advanced
IGCC w/ Full Carbon Capture
~$1.7B Total; $450M DOE
EOR 3M TPY 2014 start

Southern Company
Kemper County IGCC Project
IGCC-Transport Gasifier
w/Carbon Capture
~$2.67B Total; $270M DOE
EOR 3 M TPY 2014 start

HECA
Commercial Demo of Advanced
IGCC w/ Full Carbon Capture
~$4B Totall; $408M DOE
EOR 3M TPY 2018 start

NRG
W.A. Parish Generating Station
Post Combustion CO2 Capture
$339M Total; $167M DOE
EOR 1.4M TPY 2014 start

Courtesy NETL 2014

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Leucadia Energy

CO2 Capture from Steam Methane Reformers

EOR in Eastern TX Oilfields
$431M Total, $284M DOE
EOR 1M TPY 2013 start

CO2 Capture from Methanol Plant

EOR in Eastern TX Oilfields
$436M - Total, $261M DOE
EOR 4.5 M TPY 2015 start

Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project

Commercial-scale post-combustion carbon capture project at
NRG's WA Parish.

50/50 joint venture between NRG and JX Nippon Oil & Gas
Exploration
Received $167 million from DOE as part of the Clean Coal Power
Initiative Program (CCPI)
Capture 90 % of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from a 240 MW
slipstream of flue gas and use or sequester 1.6 million tons of
CO2 a year.

Captured CO2 will be used to enhance production at mature oil

fields in the Gulf Coast region

Denburys Hastings Carbon CCUS Project

(DOE Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage Initiative)
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (Port Arthur, TX)-Air Products is
capturing and injecting one million tons of CO2 per year from
existing steam-methane reformers in Port Arthur, Texas (DOE
share: $253 million)
Leucadia Energy, LLC (Lake Charles, LA)-Leucadia will capture
and sequester 4.5 million tons of CO2 per year from a new
methanol plant in Lake Charles, LA (DOE share: $260 million)

Denburys Hastings Carbon CCUS Project

Construction of 24, 325-mile Green Pipeline for transporting CO2 from
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, to oil fields in Texas finished in 2010.
Natural CO2 injection for enhancing oil production started in December 2010.
Air Products CO2 injection started in December 2012.

Questions?

Practical Demonstrations

CCS Critical Parameters

Sink Capacity
How much CO2 can we store?
Where will the CO2 flow (CO2 distribution)?
How will the CO2 partition? (free phase, dissolved, mineral bound)
How will the CO2 distribution evolve with time?

Formation Injectivity
How fast can the CO2 be injected?
In what locations and how (well placement, well type)?

Storage Integrity
Vertical leakage (through wells and faults)
Lateral leakage (out of pattern migration)

Petrophysical properties relevant to

aquifer storage
Porosity
Fraction of bulk rock volume
containing fluid

Larger porosity means

smaller footprint for given
CO2 volume

Vpore space Vrock

Saturation fraction of pore
space filled with a particular
fluid phase

S phase

V phase
V porespace

VCO2 Vrock SCO 2

From Steve Bryant

Porosity

Petrophysical properties relevant to

storage rates
Permeability
Rock property that relates driving force (pressure gradient) to flux (flow
of single phase fluid)
Darcys empirical law

Large permeability requires less pressure to inject a given CO2 rate

Heterogeneous permeability can lead to CO2 plume moving in
unexpected directions or distances

krCO 2 kh Pe Pw
q=
141.2B PD + S

ln (r e /r w )
From Steve Bryant

Storage rates: multiple injection wells offer

obvious advantage over single injection well
Good news: multiple injectors enable greater overall
injection rate than single well
Bad news: multiple injectors interfere with each
other

1 well

2 well

4 well

Open System (or Early time Closed System)

pressure front around well propagates
outward into new, undisturbed rock
N
no boundary encountered

Wellbore

Pressurized
zone
Reservoir

map view
circular drainage area
vertical wellbore in the
center
Pwf>Ppore
fluid moves from high to
low pressure
pressure wave moves
out from wellbore

Early to Late Time in Closed System

pressure front encounters a pressure boundary

Reservoir

EOR decreases risk by active control

of area of elevated pressure and area
of CO2 plume
Saline injection map

Injection well

Production well
From Sue Hovorka

EOR Pattern flood map

Monitoring well

CO2 plume

Elevated pressure

Exercise!