CO2 Sequestration Project Successful

The following is and announcement, dated November 15, 2005 by DOE:

Successful Sequestration Project Could Mean More Oil and Less Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Weyburn Project Breaks New Ground in Enhanced Oil Recovery Efforts

Washington, DC – Secretary Samuel Bodman today announced that the Department of Energy (DOE)-funded “Weyburn Project” successfully sequestered five million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Weyburn Oilfield in Saskatchewan, Canada, while doubling the field’s oil recovery rate.  If the methodology used in the Weyburn Project was successfully applied on a worldwide scale, one-third to one-half of CO2 emissions could be eliminated in the next 100 years and billions of barrels of oil could be recovered.

“The success of the Weyburn Project could have incredible implications for reducing CO2 emissions and increasing America’s oil production.  Just by applying this technique to the oil fields of Western Canada we would see billions of additional barrels of oil and a reduction in CO2 emissions equivalent to pulling more than 200 million cars off the road for a year,” Secretary of Energy Bodman said.  “The Weyburn Project will provide policymakers, the energy industry, and the general public with reliable information about industrial carbon sequestration and enhanced oil recovery.”

In the first phase of the research project, co-funded by the Department of Energy, carbon dioxide was injected into the Weyburn Oilfield in Saskatchewan, Canada.  The CO2  increased the underground pressure of the field to bring more oil to the surface.   The project increased the field's oil production by an additional 10,000 barrels per day and demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of permanent carbon sequestration – the capture and permanent storage of carbon dioxide in geologic formations.

To compare, primary oil recovery, which uses natural underground pressure to bring oil to the surface, typically produces only 10 percent of an oilfield’s reserves.  In secondary efforts, operators flood the field with water to force the oil into the wellbore and increase recovery to 20 percent to 40 percent.

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the technique used in the project, has the potential to increase an oil field's ultimate oil recovery up to 60 percent and extend the oilfield's life by decades.  Scientists project that, by using knowledge gained from the Weyburn Project, the Weyburn Oilfield will remain viable for another 20 years, produce an additional 130 million barrels of oil, and sequester as much as 30 million tons of carbon dioxide.

The CO2 used in the project is piped from the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, N.D., and is a byproduct of the plant’s coal gasification process. Before the Weyburn Project, much of the CO2 used in similar U.S. EOR projects has been taken at considerable expense from naturally occurring reservoirs.  Using an industrial source of CO2 sequesters this emission that would normally be vented into the atmosphere.

Now the Weyburn Project will move into Phase II where researchers will compile a best practices manual to serve as a world-class industrial reference in the design and implementation of CO2 sequestration in conjunction with enhanced oil recovery projects.  They will also expand their efforts to the neighboring Midale Unit, develop more rigorous risk-assessment modeling techniques, improve injection efficiencies, and monitor CO2 flooding and storage with a variety of methods, including seismic wave technologies and geochemical surveys.

The Weyburn CO2 Storage and Monitoring Project is a multinational effort led by Canada’s Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, and cosponsored by the oilfield operator, EnCana Corporation of Calgary, Alberta.  The project receives funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as industry and government organizations in Canada, Japan, and the European Commission.

Is this news?  "The success of the Weyburn Project could have incredible implications for reducing CO2 emissions and increasing America’s oil production."  Isn't this overstating the importance of this project?  "Before the Weyburn Project, much of the CO2 used in similar U.S. EOR projects has been taken at considerable expense from naturally occurring reservoirs."  Thus they are admitting that this method of EOR has and is being used in other oil fields.  The only thing new is the source of the CO2.  Does that make any differance?  If this is what it takes to establish injecting CO2 into an oil field for sequestration as demonstrated technology and forms the basis of requiring sequestration in some other situations I guess it has some meaning. Or is this what it takes to convince some that using CO2 for EOR is worthwhile? Our government has some strange ways of spending our money to justify its actions.  This is relatively pure CO2 from a coal gasification plant that is piped over a 100 miles to the oil field. This presumably does not demonstrate sequestration from an industrial source like a conventional coal fired power plant or demonstrate sequestration into a geological formation other than an oil field. So what have we learned?  Perhaps in phase II they will get some data as to how much CO2 is staying in the ground which may be of value.

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Comments

[audionathan]

Everyone needs to go here and endorse this statement. Canadian or not. It's excellent! Addresses everything from sequestration to renewable energy solutions in a post-kyoto world. Making recommendations for the upcoming negotiations at the UN conference onclimate change.

www.climateforchange.ca

[Big Gav]

WorldChanging also has some comments on this project :

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003767.html

[NS]

example of the slow leakage CO2
http://www.nyos.lv/?l=2&m=1&c=8&p=1
“… , trigger mechanism of the limnological catastrophes, who be happened in CAMEROON on lake "MONOUN" in 1984 and on lake "NYOS" in 1986 , was switched on by influence of the atmospheric precipitations in 1983.
Limnological catastrophes on lake "MONOUN" in 1984 and on lake "NYOS" in 1986, were caused by the instantaneous ejections of the gaseous carbon dioxide from the sediment stratums under the lake’s bottom.
The Degassing the waters of the lakes "NYOS" and "MONOUN" can not prevent from the repetition in lakes "NYOS" and "MONOUN" of the limnological catastrophes, similar to the catastrophes of 1984 and of 1986 , in which the trigger mechanism was switched on by the influence of the atmospheric precipitations.
Under influence of the atmospheric precipitation the trigger mechanism of the the limnological catastrophes in the lake "Nyos" and the "Monoun" , in any time may to be switched on and in a certain time hereon will happen of the limnological catastrophes.”