Carbon-Negative Scenarios in High CO2 Gas Condensate Reservoirs

Abstract

A gas condensate reservoir in Northern Croatia was used as an example of a CO2 injection site during natural gas production to test whether the entire process is carbon-negative. To confirm this hypothesis, all three elements of the CO2 life cycle were included: (1) CO2 emitted by combustion of the produced gas from the start of production from the respective field, (2) CO2 that is separated at natural gas processing plant, i.e., the CO2 that was present in the original reservoir gas composition, and (3) the injected CO2 volumes. The selected reservoir is typical of gas-condensate reservoirs in Northern Croatia (and more generally in Drava Basin), as it contains about 50% CO2 (mole). Reservoir simulations of history-matched model showed base case (production without injection) and several cases of CO2 enhanced gas recovery, but with a focus on CO2 storage rather than maximizing hydrocarbon gas production achieved by converting a production well to a CO2 injection well. General findings are that even in gas reservoirs with such extreme initial CO2 content, gas production with CO2 injection can be carbon-negative. In almost all simulated CO2 injection scenarios, the process is carbon-negative from the time of CO2 injection, and in scenarios where CO2 injection begins earlier, it is carbon-negative from the start of gas production, which opens up the possibility of cost-effective storage of CO2 while producing natural gas with net negative CO2 emissions.