Enhanced oil recovery using CO2 injection and inflow control devices

Abstract

CO₂ capture is an important aid to achieve the goals of reduced emissions. Today the market for captured CO₂ is limited. Injection of CO₂ in oil reservoirs is one way of utilizing the captured CO₂ and provide permanent storage of the CO₂. By injecting CO₂, the mobility of oil is increased, and the amount of residual oil is reduced. This is called enhanced oil recovery. The goal of this study is to show the effects of CO₂ injection combined with autonomous inflow control valves on oil production. Simulations are carried out using the software OLGA in combination with ROCX. The input data to the simulations are based on information obtained from a literature study. To show the effect of the autonomous inflow control valves and CO₂ injection, the simulations were compared with simulations performed without autonomous inflow control valves and CO₂ injection. The results from the simulations show that CO₂ injection contributes to increase the mobility of both oil and water which leads to an increase in both oil and water/CO₂ production. Autonomous inflow control valves reduce the amount of water produced by choking the production in areas with water breakthrough. The combination of CO₂ injection and autonomous inflow control valves results in a higher oil-water ratio and a considerably lower water production.