CO2 Storage with Enhanced Gas Recovery CS-EGR in Conventional and Unconventional Gas Reservoirs in Australia

Abstract

Abstract Excessive greenhouse gas emission and natural gas shortage need to be tackled urgently nationally and globally. In this context, Carbon Capture Storage and Utilization (CCUS) has been proposed to: (1) mitigate the global warming by removing carbon from the atmosphere and, at the same time, (2) create value/reduce the cost by utilizing them for production. CO2 Storage with Enhanced Gas Recovery (CS-EGR) is well fit for the purpose of CCUS. This paper analyses the feasibility of CS-EGR in Australia by characterizing reservoir rock and fluid properties from both conventional and unconventional gas reservoirs, and by modelling the process of CO2 injection, gas production, and CO2 storage. This paper discusses technical aspects of injection and storage of CO2 and the behaviours of CO2 and methane together with enhancement of gas production. Although both conventional and unconventional gas reservoirs are covered, the emphasis is given to the unconventional gas. CO2 is more preferentially adsorbed to shale or coal than CH4, so the injected CO2 will displace CH4 which then can be recovered. It is also miscible with natural gas and is good for re-pressurizing reservoir. However, these processes are highly influenced by many factors, such as reservoir temperature and pressure, total organic content (TOC), porosity, permeability, pore size (distribution), injection operation, mineralogy, fracture, fluids and so on. Numerical simulation is a perfect tool to study how different parameters interact with each other and eventually affect the efficiency of CS-EGR. The authors undertake geological and petrophysical characterization of target formations in Australia. It is then followed by numerical modelling which takes consideration of reservoir characterization data and interaction between CO2, CH4, H2O and rock. The sensitivity analysis investigates the performance of CS-EGR at different scenarios and identifies the critical factors. It is worthwhile to mention that two gas injection methods, gas flooding, huff'n'puff, (or cyclic gas injection), are studied and compared. Based on previous studies, this paper moves a step further by: (1) incorporating reservoir characterization data from Australia gas field in numerical modelling and exploring the feasibility of CO2 Storage with Enhanced Gas Recovery in Australia; (2) investigating both unconventional gas reservoirs and conventional reservoirs and makes a comparison between them; (3) comparing two injection methods for all different reservoirs; (4) performing sensitive analysis of multiple parameters identified from analysis and literature. CS-EGR is promising in achieving "net-zero emission" for Australia.