K12-B a test site for Co₂ storage and enhanced gas recovery

As part of the Dutch Climate Policy on the implementation of the Kyoto protocol, the Netherlands government is currently investigating to what extent CO2 sequestration in the deep subsurface could help reduce CO 2 emissions. On 7 February 2002 the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs introduced a new policy to promote feasibility studies into CO 2 storage in the subsurface (The CRUST program). Gaz de France Production Netherlands B.V. (GPN) is currently producing natural gas from the Dutch North Sea continental shelf. As one of the players in the Dutch gas supply market, GPN supports the idea of injecting CO2 into depleted gas fields in order to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The gas produced at one of GPN's platforms, the K12-B platform, contains a relatively high proportion of CO2. This CO2 is at present separated from the produced natural gas and released into the atmosphere. Preliminary assessment shows that it may be relatively easy to re-inject this CO2 into the Rotliegend gas reservoir. The reservoir is located at a depth of some 3800 meters; with a hydrostatic pressure regime and a formation temperature of 132°C. Hence GPN's K12-B platform offers a good opportunity to study the technical conditions of CO2 injection at greater depths including the behavior of the gas reservoir itself. Developing the CO 2-injection demonstration facility at the K12-B platform will increase our understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of this technique. This paper reports on the results of the phase 1 and 2 studies of the ORC project - Offshore Re-injection of CO2. Phase 1 included a desk feasibility study into the possibility of underground CO2 injection at the K12-B platform. Phase 2 comprises of actual demonstration of the concept of underground storage. Some results of the early CO2 injection tests ar1 reported Copyright 2005, Society of Petroleum Engineers.