Miscible Gas Injection EOR Complex Challenges – A CCUS Hub Approach to Unlock Value for a Multi Reservoir Onshore Field
Authors: Xu Siqing , BinAmro Ahmed A , K. Al Keebali Aaesha , Baslaib Mohamed , Masalmeh Shehadeh 
Published: December 2021

Miscible CO2 flood is a well-established proven EOR recovery mechanism. There have been a large number of CO2 EOR developments worldwide, in both carbonate and clastic reservoirs. Potential control or influence factors on incremental production and incremental recovery over water flood are well documented in the published literature. Some of the published CO2 EOR developments have reported relatively high incremental recoveries.

ADNOC is a leader in miscible gas injection EOR in carbonate reservoirs. There are a number of ongoing miscible gas injection EOR developments within its portfolio contributing a significant amount of production. Miscible CO2 flood is a key EOR development for ADNOC. Following intensive screening studies and laboratory experiments, the first CO2 EOR pilot in the MENA region was conducted as early as 2009 in one of ADNOC Onshore fields. This paved the way for further large-scale deployment and CO2 WAG pilots starting in 2016, both onshore. Appreciable progresses have been made since 2009. This bodes well with the significant initiatives undertaken by the UAE towards carbon emissions and greenhouse gas reduction, climate control and sustainable development.

There are broad consensus that climate changes are now and will continue to affect all countries on all continents. Potential global warming can disrupt national economies and adversely impact on lives, costing people, communities and countries already today and perhaps more in the future. Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies have been making headlines and attracting increasing amount of renewed attention, because they are in line with meeting global greenhouse gas reduction goals, and contributing towards climate control and sustainable development.

The giant Abu Dhabi onshore field consists of 6 carbonate reservoirs. Several pilots, immiscible hydrocarbon gas injection and CO2 WAG, and a pattern immiscible gas injection WAG flood have been executed. Miscible gas injection EOR is therefore field proven. However, due to large field size, surface congestion constraints, geological and fluid variations, miscible gas injection EOR development by reservoir individually becomes complex and economically challenging. This paper presents a comprehensive study and recommends an integrated CCUS Hub development approach - enabling field-wide EOR development with several hundred million-barrels of incremental recovery.

The study follows a step-by-step systematic method. Existing water flood performances were assessed first. History matched full field simulation then leads to identification of CO2 EOR targets by area/flank for each reservoir. These are referred to as sweet development areas.

Available advanced PVT data were analysed and a multi-reservoir single equation of state developed. It has been found that only CO2 is miscible across all six reservoirs, while hydrocarbon gas is also miscible for the deepest two reservoirs.

Dedicated fine scale sector models (EOR history matched where applicable) were developed to generate multiple CO2 EOR development scenarios, for example, depending on water flood maturity at the time of CO2 EOR start-up, and potential impact on incremental oil production, incremental oil recovery due to reservoir heterogeneity. First results from sector modelling show that quite a few areas/flanks would be sub-economical if CO2 EOR development on a stand-alone basis. Hence the concept of a CCUS Hub is proposed, which would allow sweet development areas in any or all of the six reservoirs to be developed from a single common surface Cluster. There is potential space for development phasing, allowing additional CO2 EOR developments within the same cluster area once ullage and CO2 supply becomes available.

The CCUS Hub development approach facilitates optimization and sharing of injection/production flow-lines; surface space, gathering and processing facilities, CO2 supply, CO2 recovery unit deployment coupled with produced gas re-injection into the 2 deepest reservoirs. Compared to a more conventional development approach of reservoir by reservoir, considerable scope for CAPEX and OPEX savings was found. Assuming a constant future oil price, a reduction in development costs would allow more sweet development areas to pass the threshold of economical development, leading to an increase in overall incremental production and recovery from CO2 EOR.