CO2 EOR + Geosequestration (CCUS) Consulting
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage — From CO₂ Enhanced Oil Recovery to Geologic Storage Site Characterization, Class VI Well Planning, and MRV — Worldwide
Assign your company's CO₂ injection project — for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and geologic storage (CCUS) — to A&A, and let the high-level, seasoned CO₂ EOR and CO₂-storage consultants of the A&A Consulting Team put more than five decades of hands-on experience to work for you, around the world.
Avasthi & Associates, Inc. (A&A) is an independent petroleum engineering and geoscience consulting firm. A&A does not sell CO₂, injection equipment, monitoring technology, or carbon-credit/offset products — our only business is expert technical consulting, which means our CO₂ EOR and CCS/CCUS recommendations are never influenced by a stake in any particular vendor, technology, or carbon-market program.
Several high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team are subject-matter experts (SMEs) on CO₂ injection for both EOR and CO₂ storage/geosequestration. Dr. S. M. (Sam) Avasthi, P.E., Chairman and CEO of A&A, has been working on CO₂ projects since the 1970s, and has worked on some of the major CO₂ EOR and CO₂-storage projects in several regions of the United States, as well as around the world. To read more about it, please click here.
What Is CCS/CCUS, and How Does CO₂-EOR Fit In?
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) — and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), the subset of CCUS that does not include a utilization step — captures CO₂ from an industrial or power-generation source before it reaches the atmosphere, and either puts it to productive use or permanently stores it deep underground in a suitable geologic formation. CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR) is the most established, commercially proven utilization pathway within CCUS: injected CO₂ both increases oil recovery from a mature reservoir and, when properly monitored and verified, permanently sequesters the great majority of the injected CO₂ in the reservoir — combining a revenue-generating oil recovery project with a genuine emissions-reduction outcome. For reservoirs and formations not suited to EOR, dedicated CO₂ storage/geosequestration — most often in deep saline formations, and sometimes in depleted oil and gas reservoirs — provides a pure storage pathway.
A&A Consulting Team provides all of the geological, geophysical, petrophysical, geomechanical, engineering, and simulation/modeling services required for CO₂ injection for EOR and CO₂ storage/geosequestration projects, including, but not limited to:
Site Screening and Storage Characterization
• Regional and basin-scale CO₂ storage-resource screening, for saline formations and depleted/mature oil and gas reservoirs
• Geological, geophysical, and seismic interpretation, to characterize reservoir/formation architecture, seal integrity, and trapping mechanism
• Petrophysical characterization of injection-zone porosity, permeability, and injectivity
• Geomechanical characterization — in-situ stress, fault-reactivation risk, and caprock integrity — to establish safe injection-pressure limits
• Storage-capacity estimation, and CO₂ plume-migration forecasting
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full geomechanical characterization and fault-reactivation-risk services, please see A&A's Geomechanics Consulting page.
Related A&A Service: For A&A's dedicated site characterization and storage-performance modeling for a depleted or depleting oil and gas field — including the legacy well-integrity challenge such a site presents — please see A&A's CO₂ Storage in Depleted / Depleting Oil and Gas Fields page.
Related A&A Service: For A&A's dedicated site characterization and storage-performance modeling for a deep saline formation — including the four CO₂ trapping mechanisms unique to that setting — please see A&A's CO₂ Storage in Deep Saline Formations page.
CO₂ Injection and Storage Engineering, Modeling, and Simulation
• CO₂-EOR and CO₂-storage reservoir simulation, using industry-standard compositional simulators, with geomechanical coupling where required
• Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) determination, and miscible/immiscible CO₂-EOR flood design
• History matching of CO₂ injection, production, and pressure data
• CO₂ storage-project design — injection-well count, pattern, and rate design, to meet storage-capacity and pressure-management targets
• Area of review (AoR) delineation, and pressure-front modeling, for regulatory compliance
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full CO₂ flooding EOR technical services, field experience, and reservoir-surveillance methodology, please see A&A's CO₂ Flooding EOR page.
CO₂ Injection Well Design and Regulatory Support
CO₂-EOR wells and dedicated CO₂-storage wells are regulated differently in the United States — as Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class II and Class VI wells, respectively, each with its own permitting, construction, and monitoring requirements. A&A's well-design and regulatory support includes, but is not limited to:
• Class VI well drilling, completion, and construction planning, for dedicated geologic storage projects
• Nodal-analysis and well-performance modeling for CO₂ injection wells
• Regulatory permitting support for Class II (CO₂-EOR) and Class VI (dedicated CO₂ storage) well applications, including state UIC primacy-program requirements
• Support for federal 45Q tax-credit qualification, including sequestration/utilization documentation aligned with EPA monitoring and reporting requirements
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full Class II vs. Class VI well regulatory and design comparison, please see A&A's CO₂ Injection Wells: Class II vs. Class VI Wells page.
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full nodal-analysis and PROSPER-modeling services for CO₂ injection wells, please see A&A's Nodal Analysis and PROSPER Modeling page.
Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV)
• MRV plan design, consistent with applicable federal and state monitoring and reporting requirements
• Reservoir and plume-migration monitoring — pressure, tracer, and time-lapse (4D) seismic surveillance
• Wellbore-integrity and above-zone monitoring, to detect and address potential leakage pathways
• Post-injection site-care planning, and long-term storage-performance verification
What A&A Delivers
A CO₂ EOR and CCS/CCUS engagement with the A&A Consulting Team is built around the practical decisions your company needs to make, including, but not limited to:
• A project feasibility/scoping study, covering site screening, storage capacity, and CO₂-EOR versus dedicated-storage evaluation
• Pilot-test or field-wide project design, evaluation, and optimization
• Class II/Class VI well design and regulatory permitting support
• An MRV plan ready for regulatory submission, and ongoing project surveillance
• High-quality final reports and executive presentations
Training and Knowledge Transfer
In addition to providing state-of-the-art consulting on CO₂ EOR and CO₂ storage/geosequestration projects, A&A Consulting Team has also been providing customized training on these topics to A&A clients, around the world, as well as teaching public training courses on these topics under the auspices of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for the last several years. For outlines of these courses, please contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between CCS and CCUS?
CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) refers to capturing CO₂ and storing it underground with no intermediate use. CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) is the broader term, which also includes utilization pathways — most notably CO₂-EOR, where the injected CO₂ both recovers additional oil and is permanently stored.
Does CO₂-EOR count as genuine carbon storage?
Yes, when properly monitored and verified. The great majority of CO₂ injected in a well-managed CO₂-EOR flood remains permanently trapped in the reservoir, and this is recognized under U.S. federal programs — including 45Q tax-credit qualification — provided the project follows the applicable monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements.
What is a Class VI well, and how is it different from a Class II CO₂-EOR well?
Class II wells are the existing, long-established well class used for CO₂-EOR and other oilfield injection. Class VI is a separate well class, created specifically for dedicated geologic CO₂ storage, with more stringent site-characterization, construction, and long-term monitoring requirements. A&A's dedicated Class II vs. Class VI comparison page covers the differences in full.
Does A&A help with 45Q tax-credit qualification?
Yes. A&A supports the technical documentation — site characterization, injection design, and MRV planning — needed to support a 45Q qualification claim, consistent with the applicable federal monitoring and reporting requirements.
Does A&A sell CO₂, monitoring technology, or carbon credits?
No. A&A is an independent consulting firm and does not sell CO₂, equipment, monitoring technology, or carbon-market products, so our recommendations are never influenced by a stake in any particular vendor, technology, or carbon-market program.
To find out how we can help your company on its challenging CO₂ injection for EOR and CO₂ storage/geosequestration projects — from project feasibility/scoping studies, to pilot-test design, evaluation, and optimization, to field-wide project design, evaluation, and optimization, as well as to project surveillance — around the world, please contact us.
