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Petroleum Technology News
Second Publication 2001
Update on the CO2 Flood Project
in Kansas
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-sponsored carbon dioxide
(CO2) miscible flood demonstration project
near Russell, Kansas is in the early part of its second year.
The objective of this Class II Revisited project is to demonstrate
the viability of CO2 miscible flooding
in the Lansing-Kansas City (L-KC) formation on the Central Kansas
Uplift and to obtain data concerning reservoir properties, flood
performance, and operating costs and methods to aid operators
in future floods. These carbonate reservoirs have been depleted
by effective waterflooding leaving significant trapped oil reserves
that may be recovered using this technology. In this first phase
of the project, the Kansas CO2 team has
characterized the reservoir geologic and engineering properties
and modeled the flood using reservoir computer simulation. Data
for the demonstration site are accessible on the web at http://www.kgs.ku.edu
/CO2/index.html. A clickable map with links for each well
to wireline logs, drillers logs, wellbore schematics, core and
cuttings images is available at the CO2
website under: http://www.kgs.ku.edu/CO2/welldata.html.
To obtain needed reservoir properties data and provide a new
CO2-injection well, the Murfin Drilling
Company, Inc. Carter-Colliver #1 CO2 I
well, located in Section 28-14S-13W, Russell County, Kansas,
was completed on October 2, 2000. Five cores were taken and analyzed.
Well production rates, after acid stimulation, average approximately
120 barrels water/8 barrels oil per day, which are consistent
with mod-eled reservoir properties for this waterflooded zone.
Production and draw-down testing is still proceeding to determine
reservoir properties.
The Lansing-Kansas City 'C' zone has been characterized in
the Colliver - Carter area using drill cuttings, wireline logs,
rock thin-sections, and the new injection well core. The oomoldic
limestone reservoir, typical of many L-KC reservoirs, has been
subdivided into six layers with unique reservoir properties.
Core and log petrophysical analysis has defined trends in porosity,
fluid-flow permeability, capillary pressure, and relative permeability
that were used to define site properties. Fluid characterization
indicates the oil at the site has a suitable minimum miscibility
pressure for effective CO2 miscible flooding.
A qualitative and quantitative demonstration site reservoir model
was constructed for the interval to be flooded.
The original project design, based on non-site specific data,
proposed to do a 40-acre flood. Advanced reservoir computer simulations
and economic analysis of the L-KC demonstration site indicate
that an economically viable and risk-balanced CO2
flood requires a larger pilot project (~60-acres) and additional
reservoir characterization and testing. In addition to changing
the flood pattern size, the source of CO2
has also changed. In the original project CO2
was to be trucked over 220 miles from the terminus of the CO2 pipeline in Guymon, Oklahoma. With the construction
of the ethanol plant in Russell, only seven miles from the site,
ICM Inc. has agreed to participate in the demonstration and will
supply CO2.
At the present time a revised testing and economic plan for
the site is under review by the DOE. If this revised plan is
implemented, flood pattern well remediation and testing will
progress through the summer and fall of 2001. A second CO2 injection well will be drilled and water
injection to pressure up the reservoir in preparation for CO2 flooding will begin. Assuming that the additional
reservoir properties data obtained during the testing confirm
the demonstration site viability, carbon dioxide flooding will
begin by the second quarter of 2002. If the demonstration proves
the viability of CO2 flooding in these
reservoirs, the project could lead to the construction of a carbon
dioxide pipeline into Central Kansas and wide-spread application
of this technology could lead to additional recovery of millions
of barrels of oil.
Partners in the project are MV Energy, LLC, in Wichita, KS;
ICM Corp. in Colwich, KS; Kinder-Morgan CO2
Company LP; the Kansas Geological Survey and the Tertiary Oil
Recovery Project, both working through the KU Energy Research
Center and the KU Center for Research, Inc. at the University
of Kansas; and the Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing. |