Abstract
Alaska holds more than 68 billion barrels of proved oil reserves and more than 36.7 trillion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves with some special conditions such as proximity to permafrost, making Alaskan petroleum reserves unique. The low temperature in shallow reservoirs prohibited hydrocarbons’ ideal maturation, thereby generating several heavy and viscous oil accumulations in this state. This also limits the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) options, leaving the thermal methods off the table to avoid permafrost thawing, which can cause wellbore collapse. Several solutions have been attempted for improving oil production from heavy and viscous oil in Alaska; however, they have not yielded the desired recovery, and ultimate recovery factors are still less than the global average. One solution identified as a better alternative is using CO2 as an injecting fluid, alternated by water or mixed with other injectants. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of all studies on using CO2 for enhanced oil recovery purposes in Alaska and highlights common and unique challenges this approach may face. The suitability of CO2-EOR methods in the Alaskan oil pools is examined, and a ranking of the oil pools with publicly available data is provided.
Highlights
Alaska has a 68 billion barrel reserve of original oil-in-place, with about 13.7 billion barrels recoverable by primary and secondary recovery methods and 36.7 trillion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves [1,2]
A detailed literature review of the geology and tectonic features of the leading oil and gas basins in Alaska is discussed, which revealed an appreciable number of oil fields such as those located in the Prudhoe Bay Unit had undergone secondary production
Enhanced oil recovery processes studied experimentally and conducted in Alaskan fields suggest an occasional advantage of miscible gas injection over other enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in recovering residual oil
Summary
Alaska has a 68 billion barrel reserve of original oil-in-place, with about 13.7 billion barrels recoverable by primary and secondary recovery methods and 36.7 trillion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves [1,2]. Horizontal drilling has unlocked production from viscous oil reservoirs, waterflood recoveries are low, which necessitates advanced technology such as thermal, chemical or miscible gas EOR processes. These processes have their shortcomings [6]. Polymer flooding has historically been the go-to choice for unfavorable mobility reduction in enhanced oil-recovery techniques due to its simplicity and low operational cost [9,10]. Significant effort has been directed at CO2 -EOR in Alaska, where CO2 has been used as a stimulant in a single well gas flooding process [27] or as a conventional viscosity reducing injectant in its pure or enriched form [1]. This paper reviews the current state of CO2 -EOR projects in Alaska presents the ranking of CO2 field storage capacity and the potential of enhanced production from Alaskan oil fields
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