Development of Supercritical CO₂ Mineral Carbonation Technology for High CO₂ Fields Development

Development of ultra high CO₂ field in Malaysia is the next frontier as far as contaminated green field development is concerned. Large hydrocarbon reserve is a major driver to mature technology to support the development of contaminated fields. However, managing the contaminant CO₂ is still a major drawback as far as technology is concerned. Base case consideration for CO₂ emission mitigation for offshore high CO₂ gas fields had always been geological injection even though it deteriorates the overall field economics to a point which may prove to be prohibitive for some field development cases. An alternative method to mitigate CO₂ would be the conversion of CO₂ to higher value products which provides return in the form of additional revenue or profit. The monetory income from the conversion of CO₂ can be utilized to either fully or partly offset the high cost of CO₂ injection. This paper attempts to summarise the experience based on feasibility study, technical consideration and lesson learnt by PETRONAS to mitigate the CO₂ emissions from the development of such high CO₂ gas fields. The summary is done in the context of selecting the suitable CO₂ mitigation technology, scale of conversion, maturing the technology and economic consideration as an integral part of the field development.