Potential evaluation of CO₂ EOR and storage in oilfields of the Pearl River Mouth Basin, northern South China Sea

Abstract

The Pearl River Mouth Basin (PRMB) is the largest petroliferous sedimentary basin in the northern South China Sea. It is near the coastal economic zone of Guangdong province where a large number of CO2 emission sources are located. Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (EOR) represents an opportunity to promote offshore carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) deployment because CO2 flooding offers a method to recover additional oil while simultaneously sequestering anthropogenic CO2. In this paper, a comprehensive multiparameter ‘quick look’ and potential evaluation method was proposed to screen and assess offshore CO2 EOR potential. A screening scheme for the CO2 EOR potential of reservoirs of the PRMB was also proposed using additional parameters, including reservoir properties and engineering design incorporating a dimensionless screen model and calculations. The results show that the suitability of reservoirs for CO2 EOR and storage varies and could be categorized into four priority grades. Approximately 30 of the oil reservoirs from 10 oilfields were preferentially identified by applying the screening method for reservoirs with predicted higher ultimate recovery potentials. It was predicted that 3227 × 104 t of additional oil could be produced from these reservoirs and that 3617 × 104 t of CO2 could be simultaneously stored. The sensitivity analysis shows that injection pressure (Pinj) would be more sensitive than production pressure (Pp) and well distance (L) on the CO2 EOR and storage efficiency, indicating that EOR operations with higher Pinj may improve oil production. The prospective reservoirs include those candidates with suitability grades of I and II from the Lufeng (LF) and Huizhou (HZ) oilfield clusters, where 1164 × 104 t of additional oil could be produced and 1464 × 104 t of CO2 stored with CO2 EOR. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Screening and simulation of offshore CO2-EOR and storage: A case study for the HZ21-1 oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, Northern South China Sea

“…These curves and the column of lithofacies were interpreted on the Petrel platform except for the GR curves (Liu, 2011), and the curves for the #1 well are courtesy of CNOOC Shenzhen. Wood (2006); ** estimated based on method from Mungan (1992); other parameters from Liu (2011) and Li et al (2018).…”

“…Table 2 shows a list of the reservoir property parameters including rock and fluid properties and engineering information which refer from Li et al (2018) and Liu (2011). In this paper, the reservoir dip (α) was set as a constant value of 3.5° according to actual formation dip in these reservoirs as described in Liu (2011).…”

“…Because water flooding was not conducted in HZ21-1 field and we only have the data of total recovery factors. The initial oil saturation (Soi), which represents the oil saturation at the beginning of CO2 injection, is calculated based on Li et al (2018).…”

“…The GOCCUS team is prepared for the long-term and large-scale development of offshore CO2 utilization and storage for Guangdong in 2030 and 2050 (Zhou et al, 2018). Efforts in CO2 utilization and storage have concentrated on identifying early opportunities (Li et al, 2018;Li et al, 2015), which are believed to be in the producing oilfields in the PRMB. Three of oilfields (HZ21-1, HZ32-3 and XJ24-3) were selected as candidates for the first CCUS demonstration project, and HZ21-1 is currently considered the most favourable (Li et al, 2015;Zhou et al, 2018).…”

Evaluation of CO2enhanced oil recovery and CO2storage potential in oil reservoirs of petroliferous sedimentary basin, China

“…In addition, preliminary studies on enhanced recovery and CO 2 storage potential in offshore reservoirs have been carried out. Li et al [40] proposed a multi-parameter rapid comprehensive evaluation method for the screening and evaluation of offshore CO 2 flooding potential and evaluated the oil reservoirs in the Pearl River Mouth Basin. Li et al [41] used a multi-parameter dimensionless rapid screening model combined with reservoir composition simulation to evaluate the CO 2 -EOR and CO 2 storage potential of the HZ2-1 Oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, and concluded that the HZ21-1 Oilfield can implement CO 2 miscible flooding, CO 2 storage potential is 8.1-10.8 Mt.…”