Page 36: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Feb/Mar 2014)

35 37

Production

An artist’s illustration of the system installed onshore. Illustsration courtesy of Maersk Oil.

CO EOR that require from 25-45MM cf/d of gas funding for the frst plant. 2

CO EOR would be well suited to MENA and produce up to 200MW of power. Maersk has proposed an onshore site 2 reservoirs, says Alford, with 47% of the Water production can be tuned, so is for a Trigen plant at Mirfa, which could worldwide CO EOR potential in the about 0.5MM imperial gallons/d per unit. supply CO via pipelines to offshore 2 2 region, according to a 2010 paper by “Reservoir size is dependent on how felds in shallow water, or to onshore

Michael Codec. long the injection would continue for. We felds. Oxygen created in an existing

Alford says CO water alternating gas would need a reservoir of about 400MM nitrogen production process onshore, and 2 injection has the potential to be 50% bbl originally in place to operate for 20 currently vented, could be a source of more effcient than methane gas injection years with our biggest unit. CO produc- supply. 2 or convention water food, increasing tion is almost the same amount as the Deployment of one unit could be rates from 30- to 50%. inlet fuel gas.” within three years, with further units in “It is important to note that these are On one plant, 40-50 MM cf/d fuel gas three year execution intervals. Masdar barrels not recoverable by any other would be combusted with double the has proposed CO pipelines running 2 means,” says Alford. “This is fully amount of oxygen, at nearly 2000°C. This between onshore felds, at coastal points, incremental oil. Water food, methane gas produces about 160-180 MW power, and where pipelines could be landed. injection, will not get you this oil. 40-50MM cf reservoir-ready CO , and “We are engaging with ADNOC and 2 “The CO dissolves into the oil and cre- about 500.000 gallons/day of pure water. Masdar,” says Alford. “We are currently 2 ates miscibility, and gives energy to the oil,

Alford says one gas generator would in discussions to get a unit in the feld, which means you can get a better sweep be the size of two shipping containers, and it would take a three year execu- of the reservoir,” says Alford. “Depending however, the air separation unit, which tion period to build a full project with a on how much CO you use, recovery could has not yet been optimized for offshore turbine lead time of one year.” 2 theoretically be up to 100%.

use, currently covers a larger area. The Bu Hasa feld is a potential future “One thing we are looking at is, do you “Offshore, you may require a separate candidate subject to ADNOC require- really need 99.9% pure CO ? You can platform for the air separation plant, for ments. It could accommodate 20 units, 2 also get miscibility with nitrogen if reser- process safety.” says Alford. It still has over 20Billion bbl voirs are deep enough. For the reservoir’s recoverable.

Pilot projects here we expect 95% purity CO to be “Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, they 2 adequate.” A laboratory-scale plant was created in are needing all these products, CO , 2

However, it’s not a one size fts all 1995, followed by a 40MW demonstrator water, and power,” says Alford. “We also solution. EOR using CO is more suited to plant in 2005. The frst commercial scale have a lot of interest from Malaysia and 2 light oil, than heavier oils, where steam unit, at 150MW, was built in 2012, in Indonesia, where they have naturally would be a better option. Bakersfeld, California, by partner Clean occurring CO in the gas. Because we 2

A unit onshore would cost about Energy Systems. are burning with oxygen, it is the best

US$400 million, including the air separa- Siemens is a partner on the project, oxidizer out there. You do not need to do tion plant, says Alford. to provide the turbine. The US depart- any pre-separation of CO , and can utilize 2 “We are working on different size units ment of Energy provided US$30 million low value gases.”

February 2014 | OE oedigital.com 38 036_OE0214_ProdOps2_Maersk.indd 38 1/21/14 4:10 PM