By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 20 -- The latest technology for enhanced oil recovery by injection of carbon dioxide holds the potential to recover 43 billion bbl of oil "stranded" in six mature US producing regions, says a study conducted for the Department of Energy.
DOE's Office of Fossil Energy calls the volume, estimated in the study by Advanced Resources International, "technically recoverable potential."
It identifies as "state-of-the-art CO2 EOR technologies" horizontal wells, 4D seismic to track injectant flow, automated field monitoring systems, and injecting larger volumes of CO2 than were used in earlier EOR projects.
The study says state-of-the-art CO2 injection might recover 5.2 billion bbl of 22 billion bbl of oil unrecoverable by conventional production methods in California. The stranded oil is in 88 large reservoirs amenable to CO2 injection.
CO2 injection might recover 6 billion bbl of 18 billion bbl stranded in parts of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast basins and the Mississippi Salt basin. The technically recoverable estimate reaches 10.1 billion bbl when results are extrapolated to all Gulf Coast basins.
Off Louisiana, CO2 EOR might extend field lives and recover an additional 5.9 billion bbl from 99 large reservoirs in shallow water, the study says.
Oklahoma might yield an additional 5 billion bbl of oil from 63 large reservoirs identified as amenable to CO2 injection. The number could reach 9 billion bbl with extrapolation to all reservoirs in the state.
Alaska holds 43 billion bbl of stranded oil, of which 12.4 billion might be recoverable with CO2 injection.
And Illinois, with 2 billion bbl stranded in 46 reservoirs, might yield 700 million bbl with CO2 injection.
The study identified 533 large reservoirs in the six areas that "screen favorably for CO2 EOR."
