About Carbon Capture and Storage

 

CCS involves the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from oil and gas production, industrial processes, such as steel and cement production, or from the burning of fossil fuels in power generation.  This carbon is then transported from where it was produced, via ship or in a pipeline, and stored deep underground in geological formations.

 

The role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in meeting global energy and climate goals is widely acknowledged.  Without CCS the world will not meet emissions reduction targets.  The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that CCS will make a significant contribution (15-55%) of the abatement required to hold atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to 450 parts per million (ppm) by 2050.  The size of the global CCS industry could approach that of the world natural gas industry within a few decades creating a significant engine of growth, alongside renewable energy, in the new low emissions economy.

 

About the Arun Field

 

From about 1980 to 2000, Indonesia was the world’s largest exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (“LNG”) and the giant Arun Field in Aceh, discovered by Mobil Oil Corporation in 1971 was responsible for around 30% of Indonesia’s LNG production.  During the early 1990s the Arun Field was producing more than 100,000 barrels of condensate per day and 3,500 million cubic feet of gas per day which was feeding 6 LNG trains capable of producing more than 10 million tons of LNG per annum.  The field was responsible for 25% of Mobil’s global profits and was one of the cornerstones of the Indonesian economy.

 

Although the field continues to produce very small volumes of gas, the Arun LNG business was shut down in 2014 due to declining production rates and low reservoir pressures.  Arun is one of the largest oil and gas fields in the Asia Pacific with cumulative production of more than 16 trillion cubic feet of gas and 700 million barrels of condensate.  It is now one of the largest, if not the largest, depleted oil and gas fields in the region. 

 

The Arun field was developed with wells and infrastructure concentrated into four clusters.  More than 140 wells have been drilled across the field with most being equipped with 10,000 psi working pressure stainless-steel well heads to resist corrosion from high-pressure and high-temperature production fluids containing CO2.

 

Gas was reinjected into the reservoir through 12 injection wells for pressure maintenance.  Over the period 1976 to 1997 5.2 trillion cubic feet of gas was reinjected into the reservoir providing valuable data on the behaviour of the reservoir during injection.  

 

The field had a very high initial reservoir pressure of more than 7,000 psi and a temperature of 180oC at a depth of 3,000m sub sea.  By 2005 reservoir pressure had decreased to around 500 psi which is encouraging from a CO2 injection perspective.

 

Repurposing Arun as a regional CCS hub will have a significant impact on the local and regional economy of Aceh.  There will be new jobs created from both the construction and operation of the facility.  There are undeveloped gas fields in the region potentially containing more than 500 million tonnes of CO2.  These fields are currently stranded but could potentially be developed if CO2 were separated from the sales gas and stored in the Arun facility.  The gas produced from these fields could be used to displace coal currently used in power generation and/or to produce blue hydrogen and ammonia.