Technical aspects of CO₂ enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon storage

Topic(s): Carbon capture use and storage (CCUS), CO₂ utilisation

Injection of carbon dioxide into mature oil reservoirs is a proven effective method for improving oil production that can be applied to a variety of oil reservoirs in different geological settings. Retention of the injected carbon dioxide within the reservoir is an intrinsic part of the CO₂ EOR process, and effectively all CO₂ purchased for injection will ultimately remain stored within the oil field at the end of EOR operations. This storage aspect has driven interest in CO₂ EOR as a potential method of CCS that has a supportive business component.

The storage opportunities within CO₂ EOR floods are generally not maximised, although there are no over-riding technical impediments preventing using more of the pore space for storage. Transitional, or residual oil zones, and stacked reservoirs all pose significant opportunities to increase storage amounts well beyond that used strictly for EOR. While deploying monitoring equipment and determining suitable baselines may present challenges to some existing operations, technical solutions can be found to address most of these issues.

Download

Back to Publications

Disclaimer

The content within the Global CCS Institute Publications, Reports and Research Library is provided for information purposes only. We make every effort and take reasonable care to keep the content of this section up-to-date and error-free. However, we make no claim as to its accuracy, currency or reliability.

Content and material featured within this section of our website includes reports and research published by third parties. The content and material may include opinions and recommendations of third parties that do not reflect those held by the Global CCS Institute.