The Stunning Key That Could Unlock 160 Billion Barrels of Oil Trapped Underneath America

fool.com ^ | July 20, 2014 | By Matt DiLallo

[thackney]

If they pump enough CO2 into the well they can extract more oil than is really there.

No. It is better to describe it as recovering 30% of the total oil underground instead of only getting 10~15%.

[ckilmer]

Yea carbon credits.
..............
I’m against carbon credits.

That’s not what this is about.

The central question is this...does pumping carbon dioxide into old oil fields yield a 30 fold increase in oil production. That’s what the article contends. The second question is does the higher oil yield justify the cost of carbon dioxide. I don’t that either.

I’ve pinged a couple guys who might know.

We’ll see.

If the program is successful then what the hey. A very very beautiful thing has been accomplished. More coal plants can go up near old oil fields. The carbon dioxide from the coal plants can be used to produce more oil from the old oil fields. What’s not to like.

If the numbers don’t pencil then likely there won’t be anymore programs like this.

Anyhow more data is needed to evaluate this article properly.

[ckilmer]

Is this the first time a large scale version of this process has been tried?
................
This is another question I don’t know the answer to.

[dynoman]

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/basin-shelves-lignite-s-first-carbon-capture-project/article_a5fb7ed8-0a1b-11e0-b0ea-001cc4c03286.html

Carbon capture with that technology would use up 1/3 of the plant’s output. What that means is we would have to build a minimum of one new coal plant for every three installing carbon capture just to replace the net MW loss to the grid.

[WildWeasel]

I hope it works out. Freeing up more oil from domestic reserves makes the USA that much stronger.

[mountainlion]

Mix 1 gallon of oil and 1 gallon of refrigerant and you will have 2 gallons of oil. In the article the narrative says that “CO2 moves through formation finding droplets of oil and expanding them and moving them to the producing wells,” These droplets that have expanded will have a lower viscosity and will flow more easily through the formation to the producing wells. Then of course the CO2 will have to be removed to and could be recycled. I wonder what CO2 would do in Oil Shale?

[Gumdrop]

There is that nasty carbon dioxide again.

[deport]

Do you know which east Texas coal fired plant and which oil
field they are referencing in the article?

[CedarDave]

"Is this the first time a large scale version of this process has been tried?"
................
This is another question I don’t know the answer to.

As Thackney said, it's been proven and its not new. In the past decade in Hobbs, NM OxyPermian has been converting waterflood injection wells to CO2 injection for tertiary recovery of crude. They have converted the water pipelines to carry CO2 to the well heads.

[familyop]

For those who couldn’t see through the sponsored obfuscations and distractions, coal-fired plants are being shut down in favor of natural gas interests. Very expensive. Power plant costs and energy prices are going to go sky high.

[Sherman Logan]

They want TOTAL SHUTDOWN of all modern technology and conveniences, then mass exterminations

With total shutdown of modern tech, the extermination would largely take care of itself.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

If they pump enough CO2 into the well they can extract more oil than is really there. A large proportion of the crude oil will be CO2 dissolved in the oil.

Yeah, yeah..

Sorta like soda pop for your refinery.

[Smokin' Joe]

Using carbon dioxide for reservoir pressure maintenance/tertiary recovery can be a viable option (being done in Canada, using CO2 from the Great Plains Coal Gassification Plant). First, just using the pop bottle analogy, If you drilled a hole in the cap and sealed a tube in place that reached into the gas above the liquid, shake it a little, and you produce all the foam off the top of the bottle, there is nothing to push the liquids out. If you drilled a hole in the cap and sealed a tube in place that reached into the liquid, then shook the bottle a little, the gas will push the liquid out. If the gas has been produced out of the reservoir, repressurizing it with CO2 can help move oil out--otherwise, it is like trying to suck the coke out of the sealed pop bottle--you'll get some, but no where near the optimum flow.

Another pressure depletion problem can occur when pressures drop to what is known at the 'bubble point' for the reservoir fluids.

The theory: Once a reservoir reaches bubble point (the temperature/pressure where gas bubbles out of the liquids), natural gas can come out of solution in the reservoir, effectively blocking liquid flow through pore throats with bubbles. Pore throats are the paces which connect the pores, often smaller or complex connections.

If the CO2 can be used to restore reservoir pressure, the bubbles can be forced back into solution, the pore throats relieved of obstruction, and remaining liquids recovered--enhanced production of oil, or water, or both.

A lot depends on the variables present in the field, reservoir pressure, rock type, pore geometry, permeability, structural and stratigraphic controls, to name a few.

[glorgau]

> then why was a $167 million grant from DOE necessary in the first place?

Because they could get it? It might not have been necessary for the project to pencil out but since when has a business turned down Uncle Sugar?

[familyop]

"....last time this happened there was a mini ice age that lasted 400 years, 1350 to 1750."

We're going through an extended solar minimum so far, but no one knows how long it will last. My first European-American ancestor did successful farming during the 1600s around where New York is now. What some very influential folks are interested in the most, though, is how a possible magnetic pole flip might affect the earth.

The faster it moves, the faster the outer iron core will move. And after getting to within about 25 degrees of halfway, it might go about 50 degrees within about one year. So some very influential folks are divided between worrying about that and the fact that conventional oil drilling found its highpoint several years ago (fears about wars, trade disruptions, etc.).

Thus, the many sponsored doomsday productions on TV these days. I don't care much for hysteria on television, but some of the many Internet collaborations for do-it-yourself projects are fun.

[okie01]

Because they could get it? It might not have been necessary for the project to pencil out but since when has a business turned down Uncle Sugar?

Oh, I quite understand.

And, by the same token, under the circumstances, why did the DOE offer the grant?

Because they had the money.

[Smokin' Joe]

Try this: Open a bottle of your favorite carbonated beverage. Secure a deflated balloon on top, over the open bottle. Allow the beverage to come to room temperature, or shake the bottle, getting the dissolved CO2 to come out of solution as a gas. You will find that a lot of CO2 can be dissolved in or removed from the liquid without noticeably affecting the volume of liquid.

Similarly, you can dissolve a half pint of sugar in a gallon of water, but you won't have a gallon and a half pint of liquid. Volumes are not additive, but the weights are.

[nuke rocketeer]

It’s called tertiary recovery and it is not a new concept. A few fields in the panhandle were doing it in the late 80’s right before the Saudi price bust that caused a lot of outfits to walk away from a lot of fields in the 90’s.

[nuke rocketeer]

No

[nuke rocketeer]

Not a 30-fold increase, but it will increase production, but guess what? The old wells have to be re-drilled and FRACKED first. The CO2 is used to re-pressurize the field.