Arshad Raza

Assessing the application of miscible CO2 flooding in oil reservoirs: a case study from Pakistan

Miscible carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding has been recognized as a promising approach to enhance the recovery of oil reservoirs. However, depending on the injection strategy and rock/fluid characteristics, efficiency of the miscible CO2 flooding varies from reservoir to reservoir. Although, many studies have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the miscible CO2 flooding, a specific strategy which can be strictly followed for a hydrocarbon reservoir has not been established yet. The aim of this study is to assess one of Pakistan’s oil reservoirs for miscible CO2 flooding by applying a modified screening criterion and numerical modeling. As such, the most recent miscible CO2 screening criteria were modified, and a numerical modeling was applied on the prospective reservoir. Based on the results obtained, South oil reservoir (S3) is chosen for a detailed assessment of miscible CO2 flooding. It was also found that implementation of CO2 water-alternating gas (CO2-WAG) injection at early stages of production can increase the production life of the reservoir.

Shale gas: A solution for energy crisis and lower CO2 emission in Pakistan

ABSTRACT Energy supply is an essential element for development in any country. However, the huge energy demand in future, which depends mainly on fossil fuels, may create an environmental crisis. In this paper, an attempt was made to highlight the shale gas prospect of Pakistan as a solution for its future energy demands. It seems that Pakistan is currently consuming a huge amount of domestic natural gas and crude oil, which may soon result in climate change. As such, it is crucial to consider shale gas reserves as an ultimate solution for energy and achieving a low carbon economy.

CO2 storage in heterogeneous aquifer: A study on the effect of injection rate and CaCO3 concentration

Trapping mechanisms taken place during and after CO2 injection in a geologic storage medium are impacted by a number of parameters including injection rates together with rock and pore fluid compositions. There have been many studies on the factors controlling the capillary trapping and injectivity of CO2 storage sites. However, there are only few works carried out discussing on the effect of flow rate and rock and fluids compositions in controlling the trapping mechanisms. In this paper a CO2 storage site located in a heterogeneous aquifer is simulated to investigate the efficiency of structural, capillary and dissolution trappings as a function of injection rate and concentration of calcium carbonate. The results obtained from numerical analysis indicated that CO2 injection must be made within an optimum injection rate for having an effective storage in place. It was also found that concentration of CaCO3 is an important parameter to consider during the analysis as it drastically controls the fate of trapping mechanisms at high injection rates.