Norway, Denmark to extend chalk fields research

Norwegian and Danish energy agencies and 10 oil companies will extend a further 3 years a research and development program under way since 1982 to improve oil recovery from chalk fields on their respective North Sea continental shelves.

Participating in the program’s seventh phase are the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the Danish Energy Agency, and BP, ConocoPhillips, Danish North Sea Fund, Dong, Eni, Hess, Mærsk, Statoil, Shell, and Total. Danish North Sea Fund will handle administrative tasks performed by Amoco and ConocoPhillips in prior phases.

Each company will contribute as much as 2 million Danish kroner/year starting in 2012. Since the objective is to continue the cooperation, there are no time restrictions.

Areas of the research are how to achieve maximum efficiency in the use of water injection in chalk fields, weakening and compaction of chalk rocks when injecting water and/or carbon dioxide, modeling of what happens in the reservoir when injecting CO2 for improved recovery, and production from marginal chalk reservoirs.

NPD will establish a digital library where the reports from all former joint chalk research phases will be stored.