Carbon Capture from Industrial Emission Sources for Use in Enhanced Oil Recovery Applications in Kuwait

Reducing CO2 emissions by capturing from industrial sources and creating value by injection it to depleted oil reservoirs for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) purposes can provide a possible dual benefit by lowering carbon emissions whilst maximizing hydrocarbon recovery in the future. Kuwait has an excellent potential for this technology where carbon capture linked to EOR has the potential to be optimized and implemented on a large scale. Kuwait has one of the largest recoverable oil reserves in the world, in excess of 95.5 billion barrels, and most if not all of its production is still due to primary reservoir energy. Primary and secondary drive mechanisms are expected to result in the recovery of ∼45% of the reserve, leaving more than 50 billion barrels unrecoverable. This unrecoverable reserve portion is the target of IOR/EOR techniques. A recent screening study in KISR and Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has concluded that Kuwait has many oil fields that are amenable to CO2 miscible flooding, which could potentially lead to incremental recovery in the order of billions barrels of oil. Kuwait lacks natural high purity CO2 gas fields, as have been found in some other parts of the world. This makes capture from anthropogenic sources, and in particular from flue gases emitted by power plants, gas processing facilities and other large industrial complexes such as refineries and Petrochemical industries, the most viable option as a source of sustainable and affordable CO2. This paper addresses the recent finding of the screening study performed for number of Kuwaiti reservoirs concluding that many oil fields that are amenable to CO2 miscible flooding, which could potentially lead to incremental recovery in the order of billions barrels of oil. The road map, and further challenges that Kuwait oil industry faces in adopting and requirements for implementation CO2 injection methods for Kuwaiti reservoirs is outlined.