Ten Basin-Oriented CO2-EOR Assessments Examine Strategies for Increasing Domestic Oil Production

An analysis by Advanced Resources International, Arlington, VA, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy

Ten basin-oriented studies released by the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy examine the potential to economically recover the oil remaining in mature fields in the United States using carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technologies.  Today's oil recovery practices leave behind a large resource of "stranded oil" – 390 billion barrels in the regions studied. Such stranded oil provides a substantial target for enhanced oil recovery technology.

The ten regions have a technically recoverable potential of almost 89 billion barrels using the latest CO2-EOR technologies.  Emerging, advanced EOR technologies could further increase the incremental oil recovery.  Developing these resources would provide significant revenues to state treasuries, provide thousands of additional domestic jobs, and improve the U.S. trade balance by reducing imports.

The ten CO2-EOR basin assessments are:

• Alaska  [1.0MB PDF]
• California [1.43MB PDF]
• Onshore Gulf Coast (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi) [1.73MB PDF]
• Mid-Continent (Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma) [571KB PDF]
• Illinois and Michigan Basins (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan)  [1.35MB PDF]
• Permian Basin (New Mexico, Texas) [862KB PDF]  
• Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah)  [761KB PDF]  
• East and Central Texas [657KB PDF]  
• Offshore Louisiana  [571KB PDF] 
• Williston Basin (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana)  [551KB PDF]
  
• DOE Project Fact Sheet [159KB PDF]