DOE awards $36 million for Bakken CO₂ EOR program at University of North Dakota
The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) will invest $36 million to advance carbon dioxide (CO2)–based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the Bakken shale through a program led by the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center.
The Bakken Enhanced Oil Recovery–Cracking the Code (Bakken EOR-CC) effort will combine laboratory research, reservoir modeling, artificial intelligence (AI), and field work to evaluate EOR strategies, potentially unlocking billions of additional barrels of incremental oil and extending the life of the state's coal-fired power plants by utilizing their captured CO2 for EOR, DOE said in a release May 8.
Unconventional formations typically yield only about 10% of oil in place, leaving significant volumes unrecovered.
“This program is essential to maximize the full potential of our valuable hydrocarbon resources in the Bakken. By ‘cracking the code,’ these integrated pilot projects will help establish a clear path for the broad commercial deployment of enhanced energy recovery across the nation," said DOE Assistant Secretary for the Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office Kyle Haustveit.
Bakken pilot projects
The Bakken EOR-CC program will assess multiple injection strategies, reservoir conditions, and operational approaches across six pilot projects, building a technical basis for commercial-scale EOR in the play.
Bakken EOR-CC will include DOE’s investment of $36 million along with $9 million in cost-share from the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center and project partners for one of the six pilot projects. State and private sources are providing about $100 million in funding for the remaining five pilot projects.
AI and machine-learning tools will be used to analyze performance data, identifying best practices and operational benchmarks across the pilots to accelerate broader deployment.
DOE said the integrated pilot effort is intended to create a unified technical foundation that supports wider adoption of EOR technologies across the Bakken and similar unconventional reservoirs.