Increasing oil recovery with CO₂ miscible injection: Thani reservoir, Abu-Dhabi giant off-shore oil field case study

This paper aims to study the miscibility features of CO₂ miscible injection to enhanced oil recovery from Thani-III reservoir. A Comprehensive simulation model was used to determine multi contact miscibility and suitable equation of state with CO2 as a separate pseudo component using one of the industry's standard simulation software. Experimental PVT data for bottom hole and separator samples including compositional analysis, differential liberation test, separator tests, constant composition expansion, viscosity measurements and swelling tests for pure CO₂ were used to generate and validate the model. In addition to that, simulation studies were conducted to produce coreflooding and slimtube experimental models, which were compared with the conclusions drawn from experimental results. Results of this study have shown comparable results with the lab experimental data in regards to minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) calculation and recovery factor estimation, where the marginal errors between both data sets were no more than 7% at its worst. Results from this study are expected to assist the operator of this field to plan and implement a very attractive enhanced oil recovery program, giving that other factors are well accounted for such as asphaltene deposition, reservoir pressure maintenance, oil saturation, CO₂ sequestering and choosing the most appropriate time to maximize the net positive value (NPV) and expected project gain.