ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY (EOR) USING CO2, MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE AND PROLONGING MATURED OIL WELLS: A PERSPECTIVE FOR NIGERIA

Abstract

Are we running out of fossil fuel? If so, how fast is this happening? How are policies and technologies responding to these changes? And what are the alternatives? Today, global policies towards fossil fuel production are rapidly changing towards stringent means (owing to the debate on global climate change) in that “arguably” the change is brought by the release of anthropogenic CO2 into the atmosphere. A change towards reducing the amount of CO2 flared during petroleum production into the atmosphere by employing technologies that can capture CO2 and transport it to matured oil fields has the potential of increasing reserves while achieving a paradigm towards cleaner and environmentally friendly production as well as mitigating climate change. This paper presents a propose perspective for the Nigerian E & P sector in mitigating the scourge of climate change, adaptive for smarter future growth and prosperity in an cost effective manner through the capture of anthropogenic CO2 and injecting it back into matured oil wells for enhance oil recovery (EOR).