State owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is planning to introduce carbon dioxide (CO2) injection technology in its Gandhar oil field in Gujarat.
It will be first large scale CO2-injected project in Asia.
Its purpose is to recover extra 20 million barrels of crude oil under enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme.
EOR programme aims at recovering up to 20% of residual oil from ageing oil fields to improve India’s energy security.
CO2 injection technology
It is a worldwide proven technology to increase the production of crude oil in ageing oil fields.
Under CO2 injection technology CO2 gas is injected with residual oil in the ageing field in which total oil production has been declining.
It reduces the oil viscosity present in the rock pores and makes it easier them to displace from the rock pores.
CO2 gas also swells oil, thereby pushing it towards the producing well for extraction.