Posted on 03/03/2006 8:37:37 PM PST by quantim
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States, where oil production has been declining since the 1970s, has the potential to boost its oil reserves four-fold through advanced injection of carbon dioxide into depleted oilfields, the Department of Energy said on Friday.
The United States, the world's top oil consumer, has been successfully pumping small amounts or carbon dioxide into depleted oil and natural gas fields for 30 years to push out hard-to-reach fossil fuels.
The DOE said 89 billion barrels could potentially be added to current proved U.S. oil reserves of 21.9 billion barrels through injection of carbon dioxide, the main gas that most scientists believe is warming the earth.
The DOE gave no time frame for when the extra barrels could be added.
The amount is about what the United States, at current demand, uses in 12 years.
Adding billions of barrels in reserves is dependent upon the availability of commercial CO2, the DOE's fossil energy office said.
"Next generation enhanced recovery with carbon dioxide was judged to be a 'game changer' in oil production, one capable of doubling recovery efficiency," DOE said in a release.
Up to 430 billion barrels could be added by pumping the gas into fields that have yet to be discovered, the DOE said.
COSTLY?
A United Nations report in September said that burying large amounts of carbon dioxide could play a big role in fighting global warming, but would be a costly fix.
Electricity prices could typically rise by 25 to 80 percent if power plant operators adopted the technology, according the report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The United States is the No. 1 emitter of heat-trapping gases.
In 2001 U.S. President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming which requires developed nations to cut greenhouse emissions. Bush said the pact would harm the economy. He favors using technology and voluntary methods of cutting emissions.
Capturing the greenhouse gases is an emerging technology. Power producers, anticipating future mandatory caps on gases most scientists believe are warming the earth, have been considering adding the technologies to their plants.
But because of the expense, none have yet been used commercially.
In Australia earlier this year, six of the world's major polluters led by United States pushed clean energy technology as an alternative way to tackle global warming outside the Kyoto Protocol.
Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration underground was one of the technologies discussed by the group.
But many environmentalists say it would be virtually impossible to measure leaks of the gas especially from oil and gas fields in which holes have been drilled repetitively over decades.
"How do you make sure you're not putting it in one end and leaking it out many other ends?" said Kert Davies, a climate specialist at Greenpeace in Washington. "If it leaks even at 1 percent per year you've thought you've saved something, but in fact you didn't."
Advancements in carbon capturing could be made at power plant called FugureGen. An international consortium of utilities and coal companies will join with the U.S. government to build FutureGen, billed as a "zero-emissions" coal-fired power plant.
It is expected to be operating by 2012. The FutureGen Alliance includes some of the biggest power and mining companies in the world including Huaneng Power International Inc., Peabody Energy, Kennecott Energy, a division of Rio Tinto, American Electric Power, BHP Billiton, Consol Energy Inc., Foundation Coal and Southern Co.
Well, global warming leads to global freezing, which leads to a massive headache.
There are CO2 wells just west of Durango, Colorado that pump CO2 to Texas for the forced extraction of crude oil from oil production zones.
The CO2 is naturally occuring in production zones in that Colorado area ie: SW.
I know where to get all the CO2 we would need: get all the homeless, shiftless, layabouts, those who are (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) "on disability", mentally unfit, and have them do what they normally do -- nothing -- while breathing, as they just sit there, except they exhale into hoses, which all lead to collection terminals where the collected CO2 is compressed. That way, they could earn their keep, and, whenever they complain that they're getting "hosed" by the "system", they'd be at least partially correct. Is that a modest proposal, or what? Hell, they might even become CO2 tycoons.
In 2001 U.S. President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto ProtocolThat much is bull@#$%. The Kyoto Treaty was never ratified, and has been around for ratification since the Clinton administration. Clinton similarly opposed ratification on the same grounds.
Have you read that if unleaded gas costs $4 a gallon, it would take a hybrid 100,000 miles before the 'energy savings' kick in ? Let's burn all we can while it's relatively cheap. Good old capitalism will provide future technology. Plus we get the benefit of the sheetheads holding nothing over us.
If you sift through the crap, propaganda and lies, there is some good stuff to be found in this article.
The United States is the No. 1 emitter of heat-trapping gases.
Unless you count plants...
Here, in Ohio, we have experienced boom and bust cycles in oil exploration until the late '70's. Now production here is at a low. Why?
The oil professionals here all say that it's been the loss of tax incentives from the US govt that has reduced oil exploration. They all say that the unstated policy of the Govt is to allow depletion of foreign reserves first...then tap our known reserves.
LOL, like this? "How do you make sure you're not putting it in one end and leaking it out many other ends?" said Kert Davies, a climate specialist at Greenpeace
"loss of tax incentives"......add to that REGULATIONS!!!
Yeah, I've heard that. And that doesn't include the costs involved with replacing and disposing of the used batteries from these things. I'll bet that if all the costs were added in, hybrids would actually cause the use of more petroleum, not less.
"I know where to get all the CO2 we would need: get all the homeless, shiftless, layabouts, those who are (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) "on disability", mentally unfit, and have them do what they normally do -- nothing -- while breathing, as they just sit there, except they exhale into hoses, which all lead to collection terminals where the collected CO2 is compressed. That way, they could earn their keep, and, whenever they complain that they're getting "hosed" by the "system", they'd be at least partially correct. Is that a modest proposal, or what? Hell, they might even become CO2 tycoons."
It would be a lot easier to just get "nodding G-berg" off the court, nominate Janice Rodgers Brown and hook the gasbag senior Sinator from Mass up to a hose. No muss lotsa fuss.
That had to be one of the most asinine things ever to come from the mouth of a lefty. They will say anything.
"The United States is the No. 1 emitter of heat-trapping
gases."
Yours too?
Maybe that's a good thing.
Yeah, but one would be hard pressed to "see the forrest, for the crap"
We need a lot more nuke reactors. Especially those closed cycle 50MW liquid lead ones.
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