Using CO2 for enhanced oil recovery

Do you think increasing domestic oil production to the tune of 90 billion barrels would decrease gas prices?

I’ve often used Behind the Plug as a place to write about new discoveries in carbon capture. Researchers are constantly coming up with innovative ideas to help solve our energy puzzle.

Now the U.S. Department of Energy is saying that a process known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) — which is basically using captured CO2 and injecting it back into the ground — could greatly increase the amount of oil available in the U.S. Estimates are that EOR practices could add almost 90 billion barrels to our recoverable reserves — while still storing the carbon dioxide in the ground (avoiding its release into the atmosphere).

This just goes to prove a point that we’re often making. Some people are always searching for that elusive silver bullet to help solve our energy and environmental challenges. We don’t subscribe so much to the silver bullet theory because we know that it is going to take a lot of things working together (so you might say we embrace the silver buckshot approach).

This whole idea of using captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery is something you might being hearing more about in the days ahead. A congressional subcommittee will be holding a hearing on this later this week.

Comments

[G.Klein]

You are so right ! I hope this Country will start drilling and get indipendant ,it is long overdue !!!!!

[tomnfife]

I know we can use oil & coal to generate power, but the cleanest power generation is nuclear. The waste from nuclear is very small and even though it is dangerous, it is easy to handle and bury. I believe if we would have continued to build nuclear power plants in the 80's we would not be in the predicament we find ourselves in today.