Acid/Sour Gas Management in the Petroleum Industry
1998; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2118/49522-ms
AutoresA.K.M. Jamaluddin, D.B. Bennion, F.B. Thomas, Martin Clark,
Tópico(s)CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions
ResumoAbstract Due to decreasing world demand for elemental sulphur, the economics of recovering sulphur from sour natural gas has become unfavorable. At the same time, air emission standards and regulations are becoming increasingly stringent, increasing the economical strain on oil and gas companies producing sour natural gas. Hydrocarbon producing companies are in search of environmentally-friendly and cost-effective methods for dealing with acid gas, which is produced in association with sour natural gas. In recent years, compressed acid gas re-injection into a porous formation has emerged as a viable alternative to sulphur recovery with the added advantage of eliminating air emissions. As an alternative, some operators also solubilize the sour/acid gas into disposable formation water and dispose acid water into porous formation. In addition, to take advantage of high solubility of acid/sour gas into light hydrocarbon solvent, some operators are also injecting light hydrocarbon solvent containing acid/sour gas into the depleted oil leg as a miscible flood enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique. Laboratory tests and results will be presented in this paper which illustrate the pros and cons of all these alternative processes to manage the produced acid/sour gas in the petroleum industry.
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