Carbon dioxide storage in high viscosity and density hydrocarbon reservoirs is attractive due to the short to medium term difficulties of extracting these vast resources that have high asphaltenes content. CO2 is an asphaltenes insoluble solvent, hence, CO2 injection into these reservoirs is expected to cause asphaltenes deposition. In pore-scale, how the deposition of asphaltenes would impact the CO2 trapping and consequently CO2 storage is not known. Here we propose highly efficient trapping and storage of CO2 in high-asphaltenes content reservoirs. Our recent experimental studies on CO2 flooding into bitumen reservoirs revealed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images that CO2 gets trapped in asphaltenes phase. The CO2 trapping is enhanced with the presence of clays in the reservoir. In the proposed work, the effectiveness of CO2 storage in abundant heavy oil reservoirs with high asphaltenes content is investigated. Pore-scale CO2 trapping mechanism is investigated on different asphaltenes content reservoirs with different clay type and contents. Core flooding experimental reuslts and the SEM analyses help to quantify the amount of CO2 trapped in asphaltene phase. The micro- and nano-scale modelling of CO2 trapping in asphaltenes phase and the contribution of clays in this trapping is used to estimate the CO2 storage mechanism into high asphaltenes content reservoir.

Carbon dioxide storage in heavy oil reservoirs

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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