Opportunities and Challenges of CO2 Flooding in Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract Indonesia’s oil production has been constantly decreasing since 1995 and it is in need of another way to increase it. The oil production has been dominated by primary and secondary recovery techniques, while tertiary recovery techniques have rarely been used. The OOIP has been estimated at 75 billion barrels, the cumulative production is about 23 billion barrels, and proven reserve is 4.04 billion barrels. Therefore, remaining reserve is 49.5 billion barrels and the EOR potential is approximately 3.3 billion barrels. Looking at this potential, there is an excellent opportunity to implement a new suitable EOR method in order to increase the oil production. Most of Indonesian crude oil is medium to light oil, with some fields containing heavy oil. Many researchers have been studying about CO2 flooding by experimental or simulation. The result shows that some of oil fields are favorable for CO2 flooding. Several studies on CO2 miscibility pressure revealed that the pressure ranges from 2150 to 3200 psig. This paper discusses and evaluates the opportunities and challenges of CO2 flooding in Indonesia. CO2 can be obtained from natural sources, natural gas processing, power plant, refinery and petrochemical industries. CO2 generated from power plant, refinery and petrochemical are need carbon capture technology. Sources of CO2 from natural gas processing are approximately 132.5 MMscfd, oil processing 899.41 MMscfd and power plant 6.817,91 MMscfd. Based on sources of CO2, oil categories, remaining oil reserves and previous studies, CO2 flooding is favorable in Indonesia especially in Central Sumatra and South Sumatra. Some of the challenges should be considered, such as depleted reservoir pressure to achieve MMP, infrastructure for CO2 transportation and surface facilities to process CO2 (recycling) that are not available, and also the unavailability comprehensive data of CO2 from gas field.