CO2 Utilization from “Next Generation” CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Technology

CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) has emerged as a major option for productively utilizing CO2 emissions captured from electric power and other industrial plants. Not only can oil fields provide secure, well characterized sites for storing CO2, they can also provide revenues to offset the costs of capturing CO2. Though utilization of captured CO2 emissions for enhanced oil recovery has been underway for some time, further advances in CO2-EOR technology could significantly improve the technology's applicability as a revenue generator for CO2 capture and a large-scale CO2 storage option. With application of "next generation" CO2-EOR technologies in geologically favorable settings, the volume of CO2 stored could exceed the CO2 content of the oil produced. The paper draws significantly on the recently completed report sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (U.S. DOE/NETL) and prepared by Advanced Resources International entitled, "Improving Domestic Energy Security and Lowering CO2 Emissions with "Next Generation" CO2-EOR". The paper introduces the feasibility of applying "next generation" CO2-EOR technologies to new, challenging areas, such as to residual oil zones (ROZs) below and beyond the structural confinement of existing oil fields and to offshore oil fields. The paper provides a case study that tracks the performance and the economics of CO2-EOR in the Permian Basin of West Texas. While much of the information in the paper is drawn from the CO2-EOR experiences in North American oil fields, the paper also examines the CO2 utilization and storage potential from applying "next generation" CO2-EOR technology to the large oil fields of the world, drawing on extensions of work performed by Advanced Resources International for the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme. The paper concludes with two key messages. First, with application of "next generation" technologies to a broader set of oil resources, the market for utilization of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery is much larger than previously assumed. Second, the revenues from the sale of captured CO2 emissions, along with research that reduces the costs of CO2 capture, can greatly accelerate the time when CCS (now CCUS) can be applied at wide scale.