Scholarly record

OPPORTUNITY TO REUSE HYDROCARBON FIELDS AND WELLS IN CO2STORAGE OPERATIONS IN ROMANIA

Alexandra Dudu, Constantin-Stefan Sava, Corina Avram, Sorin Anghel

Abstract

Implementation of carbon capture and storage is vital for the reduction of CO2 emissions from industrial sources and for the financial survival of emitters in Romania. Although in the last two decades, a reduction of industrial emissions was seen and the emissions verified for 2019 are almost half of the emissions from 2007, the need to reduce CO2 emissions still exists on the pathway for a green economy and a green energy future. Decarbonizing industry can be made only by increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix and by applying large-scale carbon capture and storage. The CO2 geological storage options for Romania include only deep saline aquifers and depleted hydrocarbon fields. While deep saline aquifers are hard to identify and characterize, since they did not present interest up until now, depleted or almost depleted hydrocarbon fields can present a very good opportunity for the large-scale implementation of CO2 storage and utilization in enhanced recovery operations in Romania. Until present, the only deep saline aquifers identified in Romania for CO2 storage are the two aquifers selected for GETICA CCS project within Getic Depression and the four structures delimited in Histria Depression, Black Sea. More than 150 years of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in Romania means in fact that a large number of hydrocarbon fields are depleted or almost depleted. Their structures are very well known, starting from the reservoir to caprock and trapping mechanism. According to public information sources, from a total of more than 700 hydrocarbon fields, less than 50% are producing at the moment and less than 12% are new discovered fields or under development. The remaining fields should therefore be taken into consideration for reuse in CO2 storage and utilization operations. Regarding the issue of reusing wells from Romanian hydrocarbon fields, these could prove to be an opportunity, but also a challenge. The opportunity refers to the large number of wells present, but the challenge is to ensure well integrity at the injection and storage of CO2 for all the wells intercepting the reservoir. It is certain that, due to the long hydrocarbon exploitation history of Romania, the wells were drilled, equipped and abandoned in different decades of the last 150 years, under different regulations. The last decade meant from this point of view implementation of more strict regulations in this field that could provide more confidence in the potential for reuse of wells temporary or permanently abandoned or drilled in this period. The problem of old wells remains still for the old fields where, if storage is envisaged, well integrity should be assured, including through re-abandonment.

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