Synergy between carbon dioxide storage and incremental oil recovery

Traditionally, CO2 injection strategy has been designed to recover the most oil with the least purchased CO2. However, when the purpose of the injection turns into maximising the storage of CO2, the operations may have to change significantly. This study investigates combined strategies for CO2 storage and incremental oil recovery in a synthetic reservoir/aquifer model. A range of sensitivity studies were performed varying parameters such as injection strategy, injection timing and permeability anisotropy to assess their effect on the recovery efficiency and storage capacity. It can be concluded that there is a consistent synergy between CO2 storage and incremental oil recovery efficiency. Specifically the greater the pore volume occupied by CO2, the greater the displacement of oil can be acquired. Both injection timing and strategy have a significant influence on the reservoir behaviour.