Evaluation of CO2-EOR Project for an Oil Field in Abu Dhabi, UAE Based on Industry Best Practices

Abstract

Enhanced oil recovery ("EOR") by means of CO2 injection has become a globally-used method of increasing oil recovery. Interest in the UAE has increased in recent years due to the proven effectiveness of the process, and due also to government plans to initiate a world-class CO2 capture campaign. EOR by means of CO2 injection is associated with many challenges. The majority of EOR projects are conducted in onshore fields since offshore EOR experience is limited by technical and operational challenges, as well as by higher economic hurdles. A larger resource base is required to justify an offshore EOR project than a project that is located onshore. Apart from that, the decision to embark on a CO2 injection project is often complicated by the lack of multidisciplinary integration. Uncertainty analysis should be included in the evaluation since it is critical to understanding pilot objectives, identifying model limitations, proper scaling of results from the pilot area to the field, and managing expectations. The economics of the proposed project are strongly dependent on proper baseline definition – possible only by means of advanced methods of reservoir characterization – and by state-of-the-art methods of dynamic reservoir simulation using a fully-compositional model and robust equations of state to characterize the process physics. The oilfield discussed in this paper is a digital multi-reservoir field being developed by horizontal and highly-deviated wells equipped by inflow control devices (ICD). Primary depletion will be augmented by reservoir-specific water injection and hydrocarbon gas injection. Field characterization is being done based on data from comprehensive open- and cased-hole log suites, seismic data, MDT runs, PTA, and an array of SCAL and PVT tests necessary to fully describe the process physics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the workflow and methods used to design, and estimate the efficiency of a CO2 injection project for a carbonate reservoir complex in the offshore area of the UAE. Recommendations for pilot project and surveillance program designs based on best practices and lessons learned from prior projects, developed to overcome the challenges described above, are discussed.