Geoscience Poster G7: The search for new oil and CO2 storage resources: residual oil zones in Australia
Aleksandra Kalinowski
A *
A Geoscience Australia, Symonston, ACT, Australia.
The APPEA Journal 62 - https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21403
Published: 3 June 2022
Abstract
Poster G7
Residual oil zones (ROZs) could present a new, potentially large and commercially viable oil resource for Australia and provide an avenue for geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) through CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR). These reservoirs, which can contain a moderate amount of residual oil and resemble water-flooded oil fields, can be associated with conventional fields (brownfields) or occur with no associated main pay zone (greenfields). Both types of ROZ are currently produced commercially through CO2-EOR in the Permian Basin, USA, and are of growing interest internationally, but our understanding of the occurrence and economic viability of oil production from ROZs in Australia is limited. We are employing geological and petrophysical methods to identify, map and quantify the potential oil resources of ROZs, initially in central Australian basins. Complementing this, we are conducting a series of CO2 core-flooding experiments combined with reservoir modelling to investigate the techno-economic feasibility of producing oil and storing CO2 in these formations. We aim to establish and test a workflow for characterising and evaluating ROZs in Australia. ROZs could prove to be good targets for CO2-EOR+, potentially even producing carbon-neutral or carbon-negative oil by using CO2 from anthropogenic sources, such as from blue hydrogen production.
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Keywords: CO2-EOR, carbon capture utilisation and storage, CCUS, Cooper Basin, core‐flooding experiments, enhanced oil recovery, Exploring for the Future, petrophysics, residual oil zone, ROZ, subsurface characterisation.
Aleksandra Kalinowski is a Senior Geoscientist at Geoscience Australia and holds an undergraduate degree in Geology from the Australian National University (ANU) and a PhD from the University of New South Wales. She has worked extensively on Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage, including undertaking geological assessments for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage and working on technical and policy aspects of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Aleks continues to focus on low-emissions energy resources, most recently focusing on geological storage combined with utilisation of CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR), as well as hydrogen and geothermal energy. |
