Permanently Sequester Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide - Through Hydraulic Fracturing

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have become a major challenge globally, and particularly for the oil and gas industry. Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is one of the options to reduce the amount of anthropogenic CO2 entering the atmosphere. This option creates economic benefit from the waste CO2, vs. pure disposal for sequestration. Organic rich shale reservoirs are an attractive target for carbon storage, due to their adsorptive abilities and multiple mechanisms for gas storage. CO2 has been widely used in oilfield operations since the 1950's. The unique physical properties of CO2 allow for easy transport in pipelines as a gas, or by transport truck as a cold liquid. Oilfield uses include: a gaseous agent to assist in fluid recovery from the wellbore, a component in hydraulic fracture fluids, an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent, a fluid blockage removal agent, etc. CO2 is at least partially soluble in water and is a strong hydrocarbon solvent. This study investigates the amount of CO2 sequestered when utilized as a component in the hydraulic fracture fluid system used in multi-stage fractured horizontal wells in several different western Canadian formations. By careful analysis and accounting for the volumes of CO2 injected and returned during flowback, it will be shown that significant volumes of CO2 remain sequestered in the formation; in some cases up to 75% of the injected volume. With more stringent carbon regulations coming into effect in Alberta in 2017 (and Canada in 2020), this opens up a potential new avenue for emitters to utilize and store some of the CO2 they emit - into formations they are actively developing, while at the same time potentially monetizing carbon credits. This is believed to be the first definitive study proving that CO2 is sequestered during hydraulic fracturing operations in organic rich shales and tight sandstone reservoirs. The study will show that there is a net environmental benefit to hydraulic fracturing with anthropogenic CO2 from an overall perspective. It will be shown that this unique application of CCUS also has significant economic benefit to the producer.

Impact of Surfactant on the Retention of CO2 and Methane in Carbonate Reservoirs

“…VES fluids are widely used in oilfield operations, such as hydraulic fracturing, acid diversion in carbonates, mobility control agents, , and cleanup fluids. Recent applications involve combining VES with CO 2 to create stable foams for enhanced oil recovery purposes (EOR) especially in water sensitive formations, which overcomes previous pure CO 2 early breakthrough. , Furthermore, VES are used to prevent water blockage in gas reservoirs and maintain gas saturation .…”

Could China meet its emission reduction goal by CO2-EOR

“…Carbon dioxide-enhance oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR) not only extends the life of depleted oil fields and increases their productivity but also reduces the CO 2 footprint of oil production and provides an ideal opportunity for carbon storage on a massive scale. It has been estimated that almost 40% of the injected CO 2 remains sequestered in the geological formation during CO 2 -EOR operations (Reynolds and Buendia, 2017). Moreover, additional oil recovery can vary between 5 and 20% of the original oil in place, depending on the characteristics of the reservoir and hydrocarbon (Verma, 2015).…”

A review of carbon dioxide adsorption to unconventional shale rocks methodology, measurement, and calculation

“…Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) injection is currently one of the most applied enhanced oil recovery techniques in the oil industry due to several important reasons [1,2]. Firstly, CO 2 injection, either through flooding of cyclic huff-n-puff, can increase oil recovery significantly [3,4]. Secondly, CO 2 can be stored in several types of hydrocarbon reservoirs as part of the carbon storage initiative to reduce greenhouse emissions [5][6][7][8].…”