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80 comments on Stranded Oil Recovery and American Energy Independence

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DelusionaL on October 13, 2006 - 7:51am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
To ease my non- oil technology training/education I have a question(s). The injection of CO2 effectively bubbles up to the top of domed shaped stranded oil area, pushing it lower and into a water/oil mixed zone where it can be pumped?  The problem is that CO2 follows the path of least resistance and not neccessarly into the domed deposits?  Also the speed at which this can be done is somewhat slow relative to current practices because it must be allowed to percolate upward somewhat slowly (no power washing?)
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oilmanbob on October 13, 2006 - 8:57am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The CO2 provides energy to move the oil through the rocks and in to the well bores, replacing the pressure lost through producing the oil and natural gas. Plus CO2 makes oil less stick so it cuts loose from the rock grains more easily.

Its not a new process, companies have been commercially using it for 30 years or so. CO2 also occurs naturally in some fields. At Spindletop in Jefferson County, Texas the gas in the cap rock contained 25% CO2 naturally and the shallow 1200' wells blew in at an estimated 100,000 bbl/day and flowed for 2 years. This was in 1901 and is considered the start of the Gulf Coast oil business. There is an article in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in about 1906 that describes this and is very interesting. I don' think its available online but Rice University in Houston has a copy.

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elwoodelmore on October 13, 2006 - 5:47pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
the co2 lightens up the oil (making it less viscous) and increases the pressure in the reservoir ( provides energy to drive the oil to the producing wells) the big problem is the co2, being much less viscous than the oil it is displacing, wants to flow to the producing wells  bypassing the oil instead of displacing it  the same reason  waterflooding is relatively inefficient   and the reason the doe has put such a large number (  90 billion barrels) on "potential" oil reserves from co2 eor  
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DelusionaL on October 14, 2006 - 9:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thank you both for the insights
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