Effect of Operational Parameters on Carbon Dioxide Storage Capacity in a Heterogeneous Oil Reservoir:  A Case Study

Underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is attracting considerable interest worldwide as a means of avoiding continued release of CO 2 from anthropogenic sources. Here, a heterogeneous oil reservoir in Alberta, Canada, was chosen for evaluating the potential use of this site for storage of a mixture of 90% CO 2 + 10% H 2 S produced from a nearby gas plant. This reservoir produces 34° API light oil from a pinnacle reef, which is a carbonate reservoir with a depth of 4800 ft (1441 m). A fully compositional, three-dimensional (3-D) reservoir simulation model, CMG-GEM, was used to simulate various operational conditions, study the reservoir and fluid characteristics, and investigate the amount of CO 2 stored and oil recovered. The results of this study show that a combination of two vertical injectors and one horizontal producer optimizes the incremental oil recovered and amount of CO 2 stored. The procedure developed in this study, and the findings of this study, can be used as guidelines for designing and implementing any future CO 2 injection and storage project in similar oil reservoirs.