CO2 Storage Potential in the North Sea Via Enhanced Oil Recovery

The potential and the associated costs for CO2 storage in the oilfields of the North Sea via the implementation of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects are estimated in this paper. The assessment shows that the potential for CO2 storage in the oilfields of the North Sea, when standard EOR practices that imply the minimisation of CO2 injection are applied, is of the order of 5 Gt. This is, however, not significant when compared to the total greenhouse gas emissions of the EU (approximately 4.5 Gt annually). The incremental oil production, however, could be considerable, estimated at approximately 7 billion barrels (the EU25 annual production in 2003 was just over 1 million barrels). The attainable potential in both cases will however be limited by technology, the specific conditions for each reservoir, but most importantly by economics. A preliminary economic assessment of fifteen oilfields, which are nearly depleted, indicates that the CO2 storage capacity in these fields could reach 60 Mt annually, with the simultaneous annual production of 180 million barrels of oil under favourable oil prices and CO2 storage incentives.

GEORGAKAKI Aliki;  GARCIA-CORTES Carolina;  PETEVES Estathios; 

TZIMAS Evangelos; 

2007-02-23

Elsevier

JRC33207

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC33207,