Current situation of carbon dioxide capture, storage, and enhanced oil recovery in the oil and gas industry

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important low‐carbon management technology used to reduce CO2 emissions with the captured anthropogenic CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This paper provides an overview and analysis of current issues related to CCS projects and CCS technologies. The paper also assesses risks and costs as well as policy, legal, and regulatory frameworks relevant for CCS and the major countries with CCS deployment. Currently, the few CCS projects in operation are mostly for EOR purposes. However, miscible CO2‐EOR in depleted oil and gas reservoirs appears to be the industry's first choice for CO2 sequestration and increasing oil production. Potential CO2 leakage is a major risk for pipelines and geological storage and a comprehensive monitoring program needs to be developed to ascertain its impact on pipeline material integrity, humans, and the environment. The cost of the CCS chain largely depends on the compression solvent for the synthesis gas or flue gas treatment for separation, heat rate, energy required for capture, capital costs of capture equipment, pipeline diameter, and flow capacity, and the homogeneity and permeability of the geological formations. An effective carbon pricing and cap‐and‐trade system as a part of national carbon policy is needed to achieve the goal of CCS. This paper finally discusses China's carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) systems and proposes a new CCUS‐LNG transportation process system for the coastal areas of China. Special attention was focused on CO2 transportation, CCUS‐EOR, and a new CCUS‐LNG process system for China.