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U.S. and Canada renew funding for Weyburn-Midale project
Storage, July 21 2010 (Carbon Capture Journal)
- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Natural Resources Canada have committed $5.2 million to enable the CO2 storage project to conclude in 2011.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and DOE will partner to renew funding for the International Energy Agency (IEA) Greenhouse Gas Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage project.
The money will allow the project’s final phase to focus on best practices for the safe and permanent storage of CO2 with enhanced oil recovery (EOR). DOE is providing $3 million in funding and the Government of Canada has committed $2.2 million.
Weyburn-Midale is conducted in conjunction with $2 billion of commercial CO2 injection operations, which have so far stored 18 million tonnes of CO2 into the Weyburn and Midale oil fields in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Launched in 2000 by the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan, Cenovus Energy (formerly called Pan Canadian Petroleum and later EnCana) and the Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, Weyburn-Midale studies the geologic storage of CO2 in conjunction with EOR.
In the United States, CO2 injection has already helped recover nearly 1.5 billion barrels of oil from mature oil fields, yet the technology has not been deployed widely. It is estimated that a further 400 billion barrels of oil could be potentially recoverable through EOR.
By injecting CO2 roughly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) underground, operators at the Weyburn and Midale fields are able to force some of the remaining oil into wells where it is harvested, nearly tripling oil production. CO2 for injection comes from the Dakota Gasification Company’s synfuels plant in Beulah, N.D. and is delivered via a 200-mile (320-kilometer) pipeline.
A projected 40 million tonnes of CO2 will be stored over the life of the EOR operations in the Weyburn and Midale oil fields. For the Weyburn oil field, 155 million additional barrels of oil are expected to be recovered by 2035 while storing 30 million tonnes of CO2 over the next 30 years. The adjacent Midale oil field is projected to store 10 million tonnes of CO2 while yielding an additional 60 million barrels of oil during 30 years of operation. In the two fields, the CO2 stored will be equal to taking nearly 9 million cars off the road for an entire year.
Weyburn-Midale represents the largest full-scale CCS field study ever conducted and has resulted in pioneering research, including studying the mile-deep seals that securely contain the CO2 reservoir, predicting the CO2 plume movement, and monitoring permanent storage.
Demonstrating CCS technologies is a top priority of President Obama’s U.S.-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue. The Weyburn-Midale project – part of a multinational effort involving both public and private entities, including a U.S.-Canadian research team – is playing an important role by helping advance the science of large-scale CCS technology.
The project has attracted 16 sponsors from government and industry that, aside from DOE and NRCan, include IEA, Alberta Innovates, Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources, Japan’s Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, and 10 industry sponsors from Canada, the United States, the Middle East, and Europe.
