Evaluation of potential carbon dioxide sequestration and enhanced oil recovery in the Northern Malay Basin area

Abstract

The topic of climate change has been increasingly debated around the world as of date. One of the main causes of climate change is the increase in global warming, which is directly caused by the rise in the amount greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, which mostly comprises of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. One of the ways in order to lessen the amount of CO2 gas in the atmosphere is through CO2 sequestration. This study aims to evaluate the potential of CO2 sequestration in the Malay Basin. By utilizing a set of field data and a static model that is obtained from previous studies of Field N in the Northern Malay Basin Area, a reservoir simulation dynamic modelling is done by using the Roxar-Tempest VIEW™ ver. 8.3 software. The main objectives of the simulation are to determine the amount of gas that can be stored in Field N in the Northern Malay Basin area through the CO2 sequestration and enhanced oil recovery (CO2–EOR) process using dynamic modelling, and also to determine the amount of oil production in Field N using the CO2–EOR process using dynamic modelling. The outcome of this research are as follows; i) The amount of CO2 gas that can be stored in Field N through CO2 injection process is about 137 Mscf; (ii) The total amount of oil production of Field N through the process of CO2–EOR ranges from 190 MMstb to 230 MMstb; (iii) The amount of oil production through the process of CO2–EOR has an increment of about more than 20% as compared to both the natural depletion and water injection simulation; and (iv) As the gas injection rate increases, the amount of CO2 gas that can be stored also increases. It was deduced that for the CO2–EOR process, the injected CO2 gas behaves in a way that it follows the multiple contact miscibility process, in which that it sweeps the residual oil towards the producing wells.