SPE IOR 2026 - Short Course - Reservoir Engineering for CCUS

Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is considered to be a potentially effective technology for the reduction of CO2 emissions from large stationary sources such as power generation units or chemical processing plants. Widespread adoption of CCUS technology is needed to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to below 2°C. The process of CCUS involves: (a) capturing CO2 before it is emitted into the atmosphere, (b) compressing and transporting the CO2 to a geologic storage site, and (c) injecting it into the site for long-term sequestration. The geologic storage site could be a deep saline formation for pure storage, or a depleted oil or gas field for CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and associated storage. The subsurface operations part of CCUS also provides a mechanism for CO2 sources to monetize their emissions through tax credits or emissions trading and/or revenue from incremental oil production due to EOR operations. The feasibility evaluation of CCUS projects and their performance assessment relies heavily on standard petroleum reservoir engineering principles used for oil and gas reservoir management. This 1-day course will provide a hands-on introduction to various reservoir engineering concepts that are relevant for CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers as well as CO2 utilization for EOR in depleted oil fields.