Numerical simulation of Water-alternating-gas Process for Optimizing EOR and Carbon Storage

Journal Article · Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Energy Procedia (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2019.01.507· OSTI ID:1922060

Zhong, Zhi ^[1]; Liu, Siyan ^[2]; Carr, Timothy R. ^[3]; Takbiri-Borujeni, Ali ^[3]; Kazemi, Mohammad ^[4]; Fu, Qinwen ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); University of Texas at Austin
2. Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
3. West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)
4. Slippery Rock Univ., Slippery Rock, PA (United States)

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated by fossil fuel combustion can have serious consequences for humans and environments. Carbon capture, utilization and geological storage (CCUS) is a key approach to reduce the emissions of the anthropogenic CO₂ into the atmosphere. Of those, sequestering the CO₂ into depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs with associated enhanced oil recovery is the most achievable approach under current economic constraints since it increases recovery of existing oil reserves, and bridges the gap between nonprofit geological CO₂ sequestration and profit CO₂-EOR. The Upper Devonian fluvial sandstone reservoir in Jacksonburg-Stringtown oil field in West Virginia, which has produced over 22 million barrels of oil since 1895, is an ideal candidate for CO₂ sequestration coupled with EOR. This research illustrates an example of CCUS, in which CO₂ is sequestered into underground meanwhile enhanced oil recovery from the depleted hydrocarbon reservoir by water alternating gas (WAG) strategy. Three CO₂ storage mechanisms including structural/stratigraphic trapping, dissolution trapping, and residual trapping are considered. A 3D geological model is constructed based on existing geological data from the Jacksonburg-Stringtown oil field. A 3D composition fluid model with 0.4 pore volume (PV) of water injection before WAG process is considered as a benchmark of this study. Several factors including WAG cycle period, injection time ratio, CO₂ injection rate are evaluated. After injection wells are completely shut-in, stored CO₂ is monitored for additional 200 years as a function of various storage mechanisms. The result shows that over 6 years of WAG injection, total 12 - 40 MMlb-mol CO₂ is sequestrated and oil recovery factor can achieve 28%. As a conclusion, this research constructs a basic workflow for CO₂ storage coupled with CO₂-EOR which can be applied to other super-mature oil fields.

• Research Organization: West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: PI0000017
• OSTI ID: 1922060
• Journal Information: Energy Procedia (Online), Journal Name: Energy Procedia (Online) Vol. 158; ISSN 1876-6102
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
CO2 Trapping Mechanisms
Carbon Capture Utilization
Geological Storage(CCUS)
CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR)
Water Alternating Gas(WAG)