Review of Ongoing CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Operations in Wyoming, USA

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a summary of oil recovery from each of the nine commercial scale CO2 enhanced oil recovery projects in Wyoming along with a brief discussion of the geology of the fields. The current CO2 supply and pipeline system for the State is discussed along with an estimate of potential future production from CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR), if widely employed in Wyoming. CO2 injection, production, and pipeline sales data were obtained from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and supplemented where possible by production data elsewhere in the public domain; all data used is public. Wyoming has world-class fields that have proven to be excellent targets for CO2 EOR. The process has been used in Wyoming since 1986 and there are nine commercial-scale floods that are currently active in the State. The average incremental oil recovery for Wyoming's ongoing CO2 EOR floods is over 10% of original oil in place and the average total incremental oil recovered for all ongoing CO2 floods is over 15 million barrels per reservoir and over 135 million barrels for the State. Since 2010, over 10% of the state's oil production has been incremental oil from CO2 floods. The State has excess CO2 supply that can be used for EOR, the current pipeline system has excess capacity, and the State has many fields within its four main oil producing basins that appear to be amenable to CO2 EOR.