The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has announced to expand its use of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technology, to meet a six-fold increase in the utilisation of CO2, for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), in the next 10 years
The volume of the greenhouse gas safely locked away underground will be equivalent to the CO2 emitted by more than one million motor vehicles each day, according to ADNOC.
To meet the increased demand for CO2, which will be injected into Abu Dhabi’s maturing oil reservoirs, ADNOC is planning to capture the greenhouse gas from its own operations. It aspires to achieve up to 70 per cent ultimate oil recovery rate from its reservoirs, which is twice as much as the global average, applying conventional recovery methods.
Till date, ADNOC has stored approximately 240,000MT of CO2, collected from Emirates Steel Industries (ESI), by injecting it into its reservoirs at Rumaitha and Bab oilfields to bolster oil recovery.
According to International Energy Agency (EIA), carbon capture and storage technologies play a major role in realising a sustainable, climate-friendly future energy scenario and are expected to account for about one sixth of required emissions reductions by 2050.
Abdulmunim Saif Al Kindy, director of upstream directorate of ADNOC and chairman of Al Reyadah, said, “As we push forward plans to create value by maximising oil recovery over the life time of our fields, we will increasingly utilise a range of EOR technologies, of which carbon capture, use and storage is not only good for the environment but also makes sound business sense.”
“Replacing rich gas with CO2 injection into ADNOC’s maturing fields will allow the more productive use of valuable clean-burning natural gas, whether for power generation, desalination or as petrochemicals’ feedstock,” he added.
