Study of the Feasibility of the Carbon Dioxide Injection in a North Sea Petroleum Reservoir

Carbon dioxide injection has recently been considered as a promising method for enhanced oil recovery. The supercritical carbon dioxide is often miscible or nearly miscible with the oil under reservoir conditions, which facilitates high recovery. Underground injection of carbon dioxide is also of a significant ecological advantage, and utilization of CO₂ results in a noticeable reduction of the taxation of the petroleum companies. On the other hand, application of carbon dioxide under conditions of the North Sea petroleum reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is hindered by multiple practical problems: availability of the CO₂ sources, logistics of the delivery offshore, corrosion resistivity of the installations, and other. Previous studies of CO2 EOR for the reservoirs of the North Sea region, including core-flooding experiments and reservoir simulations, indicate that the deployment of CO₂-EOR can significantly enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons. However, CO₂ must be generated from anthropogenic sources, which affects the feasibility of the projects.