Abu Dhabi to boost oil output with CO2
Dh450m project first outside North America
Abdulla Nasser Al Suwaidi
abu dhabi — Abu Dhabi will inject carbon dioxide gas into its oil fields to enhance oil recovery in a Dh450 million Carbon Capture Sequestration, or CCUS, project.
The joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or Adnoc, and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, or Masdar, is the first project of its kind outside of North America, which will capture, use and store the hazardous gas in a commercial project.
On the sidelines of Adipec 2013, the biggest regional oil and gas exhibition, Emirates Steel Industriesm or ESI, which is part of Abu Dhabiowned Seenat, Masdar and Adnoc launched the CCUS project.
Dodsal has won the engineering, procurement and construction contract valued at Dh450 million, which will be built by 2016.
The project has three elements; industrial capture of CO2 from the ESI facility; compression, dehydration and transportation of the CO2 from the Masdar carbon capture facility to an Adnoc onshore oil
We need billions of cubic feet of CO2 to enhance our oil recovery
field; and, finally, use of injected CO2 for enhanced oil recovery.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of Masdar, said the project has opened up new horizons of development for the UAE, where CO2 will be used for increasing oil output aside from reducing the environmental footprint.
With this project, he said that the UAE will focus on research and development in CCUS so that the cost of technology is reduced.
“We have been able to strike a relationship between CO2 price and the liberated natural gas in a commercial way,” he said.
Dr Al Jaber did not disclose the price of carbon dioxide, calling it as an intellectual property of Masdar. He also hinted a CO2 pipeline net- work in the future without giving a timeline. The project will add 20 per cent oil output by using CO2.
Abdulla Nasser Al Suwaidi, director-general of Adnoc, said the company wanted an alternative to using natural gas, so that this can be used for electric power generation for greater economic benefits.
About possible use of CO2 for enhancing oil recovery, he said each oil field was different, the so economic aspect would be evaluated first before its usage.
He hoped that the positive results from the project will change the future of enhance oil recovery. “We need billions of cubic feet of carbon dioxide to enhance our oil recovery,” he said.
The project will liberate precious natural methane gas traditionally used to pressurise oil wells and aid oil recovery to instead be used for traditional power generation and water desalination, as need for natural gas is on rise in the UAE for industrial purposes.
The facility will be located adjacent to Mussafah, next to ESI and sequester up to 800,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.