By Paula Dittrick
Staff writer
HOUSTON, Jan. 10 -- Water injection testing is under way in a central Kansas oil field to determine if carbon dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery is an effective means of retrieving millions of barrels of trapped oil from mature fields in the state.
University of Kansas scientists, working with oil companies and governmental partners for 2 years, studied subsurface rock samples and computer models from the Russell County field.
Starting in January, the CO2 tests focus on 10 acres in Hall-Gurney field, 6 miles southeast of Russell. Hall-Gurney has produced more than 150 million bbl of oil since its 1931 discovery, but declined to 500,000 bbl in 2001.
"For the CO2 test to be economically successful. . ., it will have to help produce an additional 20,000-30,000 bbl of oil over the next 4 years," said Alan Byrnes, a Kansas Geological Survey petroleum geologist.
On Thursday, he told OGJ that researchers are finding the conditions that they expected, and that the testing was going well.
"If you can prove that this works in central Kansas, it could work in lots of other areas around the state," said Martin Dubois, petroleum geologist with the Kansas Geological Survey (OGJ, June 5, 2000, p. 37).
Study logistics
Water is being injected through an existing well into the Pennsylvanian Lansing-Kansas City formation about 3,000 ft underground to try and repressure the depleted field.
If the water injection tests are positive, liquid CO2 will be trucked from a nearby ethanol plant to the field. Researchers plan to pump 400 Mcfd, or 23 ton/day, of CO2 into the subsurface for about 6 months, then alternate injections of CO2 and water for 4 years.
When injected, CO2 acts as a solvent, stripping some of the oil trapped underground. Then, half the CO2 and the oil produced would be pumped to the surface. The rest of the CO2 would remain underground.
A new ethanol plant at Russell could supply enough CO2 for much of Hall-Gurney field, but producers would need larger volumes for widespread application in Kansas.
They probably would use underground CO2, particularly from New Mexico and Colorado. The Houston-based Kinder Morgan CO2 Co., a Russell project partner, could provide it via pipeline to Kansas.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected]