A significant amount of incremental recovery from new CO2 miscible injection projects in the Permian Basin could be realized at oil prices between $16 and $20 per Bbl. In this analysis, major Permian Basin reservoirs were screened for their technical viability as CO2 injection candidates. Those reservoirs passing the screen were modeled using a combination of CO2 process recovery and economic models to predict incremental oil recovery and CO2 requirements under various economic scenarios. The results show that the recent resurgence of new CO2 injection projects could be sustained as long as oil prices do not remain below $16/Bbl. With the transfer in ownership of many mature Permian Basin properties which are rapidly approaching their economic limits, both majors and independents are facing the prospect of either investing in CO2 injection or abandoning the 10 to 15% of original-oil-in-place that may be recoverable by this process. A combination of low CO2 prices, government tax incentives, and innovative engineering could maintain production of this incremental oil into the next century.

Keywords:
spe doe 27754, permian basin, predictive model, economic model, miscible method, enhanced recovery, chemical flooding methods, injection project, additional carbon dioxide flooding project, society of petroleum engineers
Subjects:
Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Reserves Evaluation, Asset and Portfolio Management, Chemical flooding methods, Miscible methods
Copyright 1994, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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