14-02-06
The Energy Department is proceeding with research into technologies that use
industrial carbon dioxide to increase yields from oil and gas fields while also
sequestering the CO2, which is linked to global warming.
DOE's Office of Fossil Energy has begun soliciting proposals for enhanced
recovery using CO2 that gives a preference to CO2 diverted from industrial sites
such as ethanol and gas processing plants, refineries, coal liquefaction plants
and other facilities.
A DOE-backed study last year estimated that enhanced recovery techniques
using CO2 flooding could eventually yield around 43 bn barrels of oil.
Traditional recovery methods generally leave the majority of a field's oil in
place.
The proposals will fund projects for testing and validating technologies that
integrate enhanced recovery and CO2 sequestration, DOE said. A call for
proposals earlier this month says the goal is to demonstrate the technology on
commercial scale. The projects require a 50 % cost-share by the recipient.
The total estimated federal funding will be $ 7 mm to $ 8 mm, with DOE
expecting to fund two to four projects.
The demonstration programs are mandated by the recently enacted energy law,
which requires that priority be given to projects in the Williston Basin in
North Dakota and Montana, and a project in Alaska's Cook Inlet basin. But
applications will be accepted for projects in any region, the grant announcement
states.
The Bush administration's budget request seeks to phase out the oil and gas
drilling technologies program, but Congress has blocked prior efforts to kill
it.
The program DOE announced would be funded with existing money and hence would
not be affected by the phase-out effort, according to DOE.
Source: Greenwire