Updates
May 12, 2019: see first comment -- The CO2 project that Denbury is doing in far sw ND and se Montana is showing the same promise. Wells that were pretty much dead, only producing a few barrels a day, are now producing 100 barrels+ per day with CO2 injection.
Original Post
Peak oil? What peak oil? CO2 EOR re-vitalizes a dying field.
This is a huge story. I completely missed it. Geoff Simon caught it and posted it in his top ND energy stories. Data points:
- CO2 EOR
- source: from the Dakota Gasification Company, Beulah, ND
- operators recovering 60% of oil in the formation near Weyburn, Saskatchewan
- most interesting: why CO2 injection works -- it's not what we think
- CO2 EOR added 25 years of life to the field
- I don't know for sure, but this sounds like what we call the Madison in North Dakota (Midale-Nesson)
- current production consists primarily of medium-gravity crude oil with a low gas-to-oil ratio
The Weyburn CO2 project:Canadian oil producers using carbon dioxide piped from the Dakota Gasification Company's plant near Beulah say they are recovering up to 60 percent of oil in the formation near Weyburn, Saskatchewan.Joel Armstrong, VP of Production and Operations for Whitecap Resources, said oil production in the Weyburn field began in 1954 and peaked at around 45,000 barrels per day in the 1960s, before dropping to under 10,000 bbl/day in the 1980s. Armstrong said horizontal drilling help revitalize the field in the 1990s, but he said it really took off after DGC completed the CO2 pipeline in 2000.Click here to listen to Armstrong's comments.Armstrong said the injection of CO2 into the formation helps build pressure to move oil to the wellbore, but it primarily works by mixing with the oil to make it flow more easily.Click here to listen to Armstrong's comments.Armstrong said DGC is still the primary source of CO2 for the project, but it now has a secondary supply coming from the CO2-capture project at the Boundary Dam coal plant near Estevan, SK. He said since its establishment, the field has stored more than 30 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The project was launched in 2000 by the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan, Cenovus Energy and the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The eight-year project, part of the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, was extended to 11 years at a cost of $85 million. It is the largest full-scale CCS field study ever conducted and results include studying mile-deep seals that securely contain the CO2 reservoir, CO2 plume movement, and the monitoring of permanent storage.
The project has attracted 16 sponsors from government and industry that include IEA, Alberta Innovates, Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources, Japan’s Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, and 10 industry sponsors from Canada, the US, the Middle East, and Europe.
In July 2010, the US Department of Energy (DoE) and Natural Resources Canada committed $5.2 million to enable the project to conclude in 2011. The DoE provided $3 million and the Government of Canada provided $2.2 million.
