Worldwide Selection of Early Opportunities for CO2-EOR and CO2-ECBM (1)

Abstract

One of the technologies that have the potential to make deep reductions in CO2 emissions is geological storage of CO2. Deep reductions in CO2 emissions will most probably be needed to achieve stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. There are several options for geological storage that can be divided into two groups: storage without energy benefits (for example, in aquifers or in depleted gas and oil reservoirs) and with energy benefits. The latter group can be cost effective, even without CO2 credits or taxes, because of revenues from oil or gas production. It is, therefore, likely that these options give an added value to each ton of CO2 prevented from emission to the atmosphere, and have the potential to be the first projects to be implemented in the near future. As a matter a fact, due to its cost effectiveness, enhanced oil recovery with CO2 (CO2-EOR) is already applied by the oil and gas industry, mostly in the United States and Canada. These low costs opportunities combine high purity (100%) CO2 gas streams, which lower capture costs, with short transmission distance and potentially profitable CO2 enhanced fossil fuel recovery schemes such as CO2-EOR and CO2-ECBM. Such low cost opportunities should provide options for early implementation of CO2 capture and storage projects worldwide. The study has used a Geographical Information System to link high purity CO2 point sources to oil and gas reservoirs within 100 km of the point source.