Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery

Energy Procedia
Energy Procedia (2009) 3141–3148 Energy Procedia 100 (2008 ) 000 –000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia www.elsevier .com/locate/XXX

GHGT-9

Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery Injection Operations Technologies
(Poster Presentation) Michael E. Parker, P.E. a, James P. Meyer, PhD. b, Stephanie R. Meadows c
a

ExxonMobil Production Company, Houston Texas, USA b ContekSolutions, LLC., P lano, Texas, USA c American Petroleum Institute, Washington, DC

Elsevier use only: Received date here; revised date here; accepted date here

Abstract

Over the past 35 years, the oil and gas industry has developed many technology improvements and operating practices for injecting carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Over this time, the US oil and gasindustry has operated over 13,000 CO 2 EOR wells, over 3,500 miles of high pressure CO 2 pipelines and has injected over 600 million tons of CO2 without any significant safety or environmental endangerment events. Today, the US produces over 245,000 barrels of oil per day as a direct result of CO 2 EOR. This presentation will describe many of the technical improvements and operational practices thathave been developed as a result of the oil and gas industry's experiences with CO 2 EOR. When these technologies and practices are applied, operators can expect facility and wellbore integrity at levels equivalent to those seen for conventional oil an d gas operations. Many of the technologies and practices that have been developed for CO 2 EOR may have applicability in carbon capture andstorage (CCS) projects, recognizing however, that each project should be designed to meet its site specific conditio ns. The CO2 EOR experiences of the oil and gas industry represent the largest collective base of technical information available on CO2 injection and, as such, provide valuable information for development and implementation of CCS field projects as they move forward.
c 2009 Elsevier Ltd. rights reserved. © 2008Elsevier Ltd. AllAll rights reserved
Keywords: Enhanced Oil Recovery, CO2, Carbon Dioxide, Oil and Gas Production Technology, CCS, Carbon Capture and Storage

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2009.02.096

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Author na meet Energy Procedia 00 (1 (2009) 3141–3148 M.E. Parker / al. / Energy Procedia 2008) 000 –000

1. Introduction The oil and gas industry has bee nproducing, capturing, transporting , and injecting carbon dioxide (CO2 ) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) for over 35 years. The experience gained over this time will prove invaluable as carbon capture and storage (CCS) , a technically similar process, moves forward. In the United States alone, the oil and gas industry operates over 13,000 CO 2 EOR wells (injection and production) with a degree ofreliability comparable to that of conventional oil and gas wells. In developing CO 2 based EOR, the industry's i mprovem ents in design and operating practices for CO2 EOR wells have been sig nificant (table 1). Particular areas of design improvement include: • • • • • Selective us e of corrosion resistant materials and alloys for surface piping, metal component trim and specia lty coatingapplications Use of CO 2 resistant elastom ers, Teflon, and nylon for packer elements and seals Use of novel tubular coatings or liners using plastic, epoxy resin or fiber glass/resin materi als Use of specialty cements and additives Use of automatic controls and real time monitoring systems

Careful selection and prudent use of these materials and associated operating practices has led to significantimprovements in wellbore and productio n equipment integrity and longevity, relative to initial implementation efforts that were based on the use of standard oil and gas equipment and practices developed for hydrocarbon-produced water systems alone. Today, CO 2 EOR operators routinely achieve wellbore integrity levels similar to those seen for conventional oil and gas production operations....