Texaco Inc. and Spain's Repsol SA have proposed a major carbon dioxide flood in Ecuador's two biggest oil fields in a project that ultimately could cost $1.1 billion.
Petroleos del Ecuador (Petroecuador) is considering the proposal and has let contract to France's Institut Francais du Petrole for a technical assessment of the proposed project.
It is not certain whether this would be Ecuador's first commercial enhanced oil recovery project. Oil & Gas Journal's biennial EOR survey shows no listing for an EOR project in Ecuador.
The fields involved are Shushufindi, currently producing about 100,000 b/d of 30-31 gravity oil under waterflood, and Sacha, producing about 60,000 b/d of 28 gravity oil.
PROJECT DETAILS
The project would involve three stages. The pilot stage would cost about $64 million and cover almost 25,000 acres in the northern portion of Shushufindi.
The pilot calls for converting 11 producing wells and four water injection wells to CO2 injection.
The companies would have to take precautions to avoid contaminating the field's associated gas, which is feedstock for a liquefied petroleum gas plant in the center of the field.
If the pilot is successful, the CO2 flood would be expanded to the rest of Shushufindi and then introduced in Sacha field on a commercial basis. Ultimately the program calls for a total of 43 CO2 injection wells.
All project installations would be chromium treated to avoid corrosion.
Injection rates and expected incremental recovery rates or future production volumes aren't disclosed, but the project is programmed for 20 years.
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