Techno-economic analysis of intermediate hydrocarbon injection on coupled CO2 storage and enhanced oil recovery

Jinhyung Cho,Young W Lee,Hye S Lee,Moon S Jeong,Kun S Lee

doi:10.1177/0144598720927078

Jinhyung Cho, Young W Lee + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/0144598720927078

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Abstract

This study proposes economic evaluation of CO2 geological storage with enhanced oil recovery. The procedures consider capital expenditures and operating costs of infrastructures and revenues from oil recovery and carbon tax credits. Extensive CO2 geological storage with enhanced oil recovery simulations was conducted to determine the most promising scenario among cases, where miscibility was controlled by the addition of liquefied petroleum gas. The addition of liquefied petroleum gas into a CO2 injection stream can accelerate reduction of oil viscosity, interfacial tension, and oil density, which cause improved displacement efficiency. The larger was the amount of liquefied petroleum gas injected, the greater was the miscibility due to minimum miscibility pressure reduction, resulting in higher oil recovery and less CO2 sequestration. Although liquefied petroleum gas addition enhances the performance of CO2 enhanced oil recovery, economic analysis should be conducted for CO2 geological storage with enhanced oil recovery due to the higher price of liquefied petroleum gas than that of CO2. Net present value decreased from liquefied petroleum gas mole fraction of 0–2% and started to increase from mole fraction 2–13% due to the miscibility effect. Then, net present value started to decrease, because the purchasing and injecting prices of the required liquefied petroleum gas exceeded that of the oil produced. Economic evaluation showed that addition of 13% liquefied petroleum gas was the most promising scenario, with a net present value of 91 MM$. Thus, we confirmed an optimum liquefied petroleum gas concentration in the CO2 geological storage with enhanced oil recovery process.

Highlights

It is expected that world gross domestic product (GDP) will double from 2016 to 2040 because of the economic expansion and development of non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and OECD countries; more dominant from developing countries (ExxonMobil, 2018)
Increased addition of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) injection led to higher miscibility and lower viscosity and interfacial tension (IFT), which resulted in higher oil recovery
Additional oil was produced by IFT, viscosity reduction, and relative permeability change, while CO2 was sequestrated through solubility trapping, residual trapping, and free CO2

Summary

Introduction

It is expected that world gross domestic product (GDP) will double from 2016 to 2040 because of the economic expansion and development of non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and OECD countries; more dominant from developing countries (ExxonMobil, 2018). Nunez-Lopez et al (2019) performed reservoir simulation studies with various CO2 injection scenarios for CCS–EOR CO2 storage without economic analysis and constant miscibility mechanisms Those studies focused only on in-situ mechanisms and performances and neglected the economics of field operation including CO2 capture, transportation, and injection. Since the optimum operating design and condition to enhance the performance of CCS– EOR at each reservoir is different, it is necessary to develop site-specific design based on economic analysis for the field application. To overcome the limitations of previous studies, CCS–EOR was performed from the viewpoint of economics to derive the most promising scenario with variable miscibility conditions with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and economic parameters. Sgrh is the value of Sgr corresponding to Sgh via Land’s equation (Land, 1968) as follows

Sgmax À

Results

Conclusions