Economical Modeling of CO2 Capturing and Storage Projects

Abstract

Abstract Recently, there is a rising global attention to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels burning due to environmental considerations. Conversely, there is a growing interest in oil industry to utilize CO2 in Enhanced Oil Recovery methods (EOR) to cope with the high oil demands in main consuming countries. Synchronization between these two sides is promising through the applications of CO2-EOR projects. Generally, there are five economical constituents of most CO2-EOR projects: CO2 capturing cost, CO2 compression cost, CO2 transportation cost, CO2 storage cost, and revenue enhancement through increasing oil production. Economical evaluation of CO2-EOR projects is a crucial measure in order to insure project's viability. In this study, an efficient and fast model was developed to predict the economics involved in CO2-EOR projects. The developed model consists of five modules that predict the major economical constituents of CO2-EOR projects. The model was used to predict the economics involved in capturing and storing CO2 in a Middle Eastern reservoir which is recommended for miscible CO2 flooding. The results showed that due to the level of the immature development of the reservoir, CO2 storage activities, such as drilling new wells and preparing the field for injection, constituted most of the expenditures. Moreover, the model was subjected to sensitivity analyses to evaluate the effects of several parameters on the various cost components encountered in CO2-EOR projects and the net present value. The results indicated that the investigated parameters can be divided into five different groups according to their influence. The results also showed that recycling the produced CO2 has a significant impact on the economics of CO2-EOR projects. Finally, the effect of capturing CO2 from different types of power plants on the capturing cost was investigated. Introduction With the current oil price environment and the continuous growing demand of oil by major energy consuming countries such as China and India, the applications of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods are drawing more attention in the oil industry. Generally, EOR methods are classified to three different categories; thermal, chemical, and miscible EOR methods(1). Thermal EOR methods are generally used to reduce in situ oil viscosity by injecting heat carrier fluid into hydrocarbon reservoirs. Different versions of thermal EOR projects are known such as: steam cyclic stimulation, steam flooding, and in-situ combustion. The chemical EOR methods are implemented to improve oil recovery efficiency by reducing the forces responsible for oil entrapment in the reservoir. The common forms of chemical EOR methods are: polymer flooding, surfactant flooding, and alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding. Finally, the miscible EOR methods involve gas injection processes where a gas which can be miscible with in situ oil is injected into the reservoir to reduce oil viscosity and expand oil volume. Different types of gasses are used such as natural gas, nitrogen, and/or CO2.