OPTIMIZATION OF CO2 INJECTION FOR SEQUESTRATION / ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY AND CURRENT STATUS IN CANADA

In today's industrialized world, the generation (and emission) of greenhouse gases (GHG) is likely to continue. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through public outreach programs is one approach to mitigate this problem however, in practice, it has not yet been received well by the public due to economic costs. Therefore, permanent storage of these gases in underground reservoirs is believed to be one of the most suitable solutions for the mitigation of greenhouse gases. Sequestration of GHG is not cheap, however, and thus the injection of greenhouse gases into oil or gas reservoirs to enhance production may offset some of these associated costs. The use of CO

2

for purely EOR purposes versus injection of CO

2

primarily for sequestration are technically two different problems. Proper design practices and technology need to be developed and applied in order to inject CO

2

into oil reservoirs not only for the purpose of tertiary oil recovery but also for permanent sequestration. In conventional CO

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injection projects the main purpose is to increase the amount of oil produced per amount of CO

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injected. In contrast optimization of CO

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injection for sequestration purposes requires “maximum oil production with the highest amount of CO

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storage„. Breakthrough time is a critical parameter in this exercise as recycling CO

2

is undesirable due to economic and environmental constraints. This paper summarizes on-going research into the conditions that will maximize oil recovery while maximizing the underground sequestration of CO

2

. Results obtained from numerical modeling of the injection process are discussed. Current efforts on CO

2

injection in Canada are also presented.