Natural CO2

A lot of the big run-up in U.S. crude oil production since 2010 is tied to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Eagle Ford, the Bakken and other tight-oil plays. But while oil from shale and other reservoirs with very low permeability has grabbed the headlines, crude production from enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in older conventional oil fields—especially using CO2 flooding techniques--is on the rise. Crude production from CO2-based EOR operations could more than double by 2020 (to 600 Mb/d or higher), providing yet another boost to U.S. energy independence. In today’s blog, we begin a look at enhanced oil recovery, with a focus on techniques that use large volumes of carbon dioxide.