The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership: Demonstrating Carbon Management Options for the Central Interior of North America
The PCOR Partnership is one of seven regional partnerships established by the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory to assess and develop carbon sequestration opportunities. The PCOR Partnership covers an area of over 1.4 million square miles in the central interior of North America and includes all or part of nine states and four Canadian provinces. The PCOR Partnership is characterizing the region's stationary CO2 sources and sinks and evaluating the efficacy of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) in its region by conducting commercially relevant demonstrations and providing outreach and support to carbon management activities for its varied and numerous partners. The PCOR Partnership region has several seismically stable geologic basins that are ideal storage targets for CCS. These basins have been well-characterized because of commercial oil and gas activities and have very significant CO2 storage capacities. The region's energy industry is evaluating carbon management options including CCS. Many of the region's oil fields could develop CO2-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects if CO2 were more readily available. CO2-based tertiary EOR projects offer a means of developing the expertise and infrastructure required to make geologic CCS a commercial reality. The PCOR Partnership has conducted four field validation tests thus far: 1) Apache Canada Limited hosted a combined EOR/sequestration activity that injected acid gas (approximately 70% CO2 and 30% H2S) into a pinnacle reef structure from the Zama, Alberta, gas plant for use as a miscible flood agent; 2) an EOR project in the Williston Basin demonstrated the potential of using CO2 in a tertiary oil recovery operation in a carbonate formation at depths of approximately 8000 feet; 3) the potential for simultaneous CO2 sequestration and enhanced coalbed methane production in WillistView/Download Document
Event/Meeting Information
2011 RMS-AAPG Meeting
6/25/2011
Cheyenne, WY