Mitsubishi, Shell to use power-plant CO2 for EOR

Oct. 19, 2007
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, building on an earlier agreement, will jointly develop plants aimed at boosting oil production by injecting wells with carbon dioxide emitted from electric power plants.

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, building on an earlier agreement, will jointly develop plants aimed at boosting oil production by injecting wells with carbon dioxide emitted from electric power plants.

The plants will collect and compress CO2 and inject it into an oil reservoir about 1,000 m deep. The first contract is expected as early as 2008.

The technology reportedly can increase oil output by 4 bbl for each tonne of CO2 injected. The two firms plan to build facilities capable of collecting 10,000 tonnes of CO2 and raising oil production by 40,000 b/d.

In December 2005, Shell and Mitsubishi signed a memorandum of understanding that established a strategic alliance to cooperate on business opportunities relating to CO2 capture and recovery in the Middle East.

The companies said areas of cooperation would include joint feasibility studies on CO2 capture from flue gases, as produced from industrial plants, and linked to enhanced oil recovery projects, using CO2 "in miscible flood techniques to improve the flow and recovery of oil from developed reservoirs."

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].