carbon capture and storage

This paper discusses novel technologies for increasing the energy efficiency of offshore oil and gas platforms. Three case studies are in progress that are based on actual oil-producing platforms—two on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) and one in the Brazilian basin.

Research-and-development modeling has shown that CO2 can diffuse a small distance into the thick shale caprocks above brine aquifers used for sequestration and cause migration of siderite (iron carbonate), magnesite (magnesium carbonate), calcite, and other precipitates back into the target zone.

Several geological settings are appropriate for geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), including depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep brine-saturated formations, CO2-flood enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) operations, and enhanced coalbed-methane recovery.

Total has been involved in CO2 injection and geological storage for more than 15 years, in Canada (Weyburn oil field) for enhanced oil recovery and in Norway (Sleipner and Snohvit fields) for aquifer storage.

ExxonMobil is testing its Controlled Freeze Zone technology, a single-step cryogenic process that allows carbon dioxide (CO2) to freeze in a controlled method and then melts the CO2. After recovery of the methane, the CO2 can be sequestered or used for EOR.

This paper describes the project evolution, from the first study to the implementable concept of energy production using the associated gas of two onshore facilities in Tunisia. Despite complex composition, high CO2, high H2S, and relatively low quantities, a solution was developed successfully.