By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 21 -- Occidental Petroleum Corp. and BP PLC are discussing options for injecting carbon dioxide captured at a power plant into Oxy's mature California oil fields for enhanced recovery and sequestration.
The CO2 would come from a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-fueled power plant to be built alongside BP's 247,000 b/cd Carson, Calif., refinery by BP and a unit of Edison International.
Technical studies are under way to determine which of Oxy's fields would be best suited for CO2 flooding. The company produces a net 120,000 b/d of oil equivalent from giant Elk Hills field in the San Joaquin Valley, the THUMS operation at Long Beach, and other fields in the Sacramento Valley.
In the Permian basin of West Texas and New Mexico, Oxy injects more than 1 bcfd of CO2 in its Permian basin oil fields in West Texas and New Mexico, resulting in 85,000 b/d of oil production from previously unrecoverable reserves. The CO2 for those projects comes from natural deposits.
Detailed engineering and commercial studies for the proposed $1 billion power plant are expected to be complete in 2006. The final investment decisions are scheduled for 2008. The power plant would be commissioned by 2011.
The plant would convert coke from the refinery into hydrogen and CO2, of which 90% would be captured and separated. The hydrogen stream would fuel a gas turbine to generate electricity. The captured CO2 would be transported by pipeline to an oil field for injection.
The project would prevent emission into the atmosphere of an estimated 4 million tons/year of CO2.
