CO2 enhanced oil recovery

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CO2 EOR is the primary use of carbon during the Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS). A rebranded version of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), using carbon for CO2 EOR involves injecting a recycled loop of carbon dioxide into legacy oil fields to force out 8-20% more of the original oil in place out of the well. Doing so can extend the lifeline of an oil well for an additional 20-25 years or more.

A closed-loop CO2 EOR system, exhibited in a 2013 NETL report.

The public relations framing shift from CCS to CCUS sat at the center of a rebranding effort that began in 2012 by the Obama Administration and the oil industry. The "U" in CCUS, in this case, is using carbon to drill for more oil. As of 2014, 97% of the industrial marketed carbon is used for CO2 EOR.

Natural carbon dioxide is currently the source of over 80% of the CO2 for CO2 EOR in the United States and CO2 EOR currently is the final carbon sink for nine of the ten biggest U.S.-based Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects currently commercially operational. The vast majority of the rest of the CO2 used to do CO2 EOR comes from natural gas plants in Wyoming and Texas in which CO2 is produced as a by-product.

Carbon capture, as opposed to getting carbon from natural sources, involves creating anthropogenic capture units on power plants or other industrial facilities. The Biden White House American Jobs Plan infrastructure package proposal calls for increased guaranteed loan vehicles and tax credits to boost CCUS, which is a fulfillment of Biden's campaign pledge to "double down" on subsidizing the apparatus. CO2 EOR and CCUS primarily is a regional market today, with major markets in Texas' Permian Basin and the Houston Metro Area, Mississippi, Louisiana, Montana, and Wyoming. The Permian Basin is by far the biggest CO2 EOR field and Occidental is the top CO2 EOR driller there.

In its 2019 corporate sustainability report, the CO2 EOR-focused exploration and production company Denbury wrote that “In 2018, CO2 EOR accounted for approximately 2.9% of average U.S. daily production, or approximately 310,000 barrels of oil per day (“BOPD”) or over 110 million barrels per year. CO2 transportation pipelines currently cover over 5,000 miles.” As of 2014, 136 CO2 EOR projects existed in the United States, shooting over three billion cubic feet of CO2 underground. A 2019 study by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that "CO2 EOR could produce upwards of 30 to 40 percent of all U.S. crude oil" in the decades ahead.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners operates the most productive CO2 EOR field, the original commercial field, West Texas' SACROC. Occidental's Denver Unit is the second most prolific CO2 EOR basin, with Kinder Morgan's Yates Oil Field sitting at third. At a distant fourth is Denbury's Tinsley Oil Field. Occidental has 33 operational CO2 EOR projects as of 2015, while Denbury has 25 and Kinder Morgan has four.

Top producing CO2 EOR fields. Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy

History

The CO2 at the Bravo Dome was first discovered by accident in 1916 in a search for oil by prospectors in New Mexico. At the time, it was known then as the Bueyeros Field.

Bueyeros Field map. Credit: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

By 1931, the first CO2 wells were drilled in New Mexico for the manufacture of dry ice and the first pipeline was constructed in 1932. The Harding County portion of the Bravo Dome was discovered in 1935. In its early years, the Bravo Dome CO2 was used in fire extinguishers, carbonated water and beverages, and as a food preservative.

"The principal use of solid carbon dioxide, or dry ice, is as a refrigerant. It is especially useful in the long-distance shipment of fruits, vegetables, flowers, chemicals, and medicines," explains a 1959 report published by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. "Pound for pound, it is from 10 to 15 times as effective as water ice for these purposes, and it is much less bulky."

Witt Ice and Gas Co. Plant near Bueyeros Field. Credit: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

"In recent years, large quantities of dry ice have been and are being used by research laboratories where precise temperature control is necessary," the report continued. "The biggest market for ice produced in New Mexico, reportedly, is with the White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base, Sandia Base, and Los Alamos laboratory."

As of 1942, there were 26 commercial CO2 wells in New Mexico. By 1958, Bueyeros Field had 11 operational CO2 wells and the product moved to market via truck or rail.

CO2 EOR is a process first patented in 1952 by Atlantic Refining Company, with the patent titled, "Method for Producing Oil by Means of Carbon Dioxide." In those two decades between 1952 and the first commercial CO2 EOR project in the Permian Basin beginning in 1972, multiple methods of enhanced oil recovery took place. But the first test well for CO2 EOR actually took place in 1951, though with carbonated dry ice, and not pure CO2.

The 1952 patent puts it simply in explaining the goal behind CO2 EOR production: the "object of this invention is to provide an improved method for producing from an oil reservoir whereby a greater amount of oil may be recovered than otherwise might be recovered by previously known methods of" drilling.

Prior to deciding upon CO2 EOR, the oil industry also attempted to use both liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), flue gas, and nitrogen as underground injectants to free up more oil. In 1960, fire-induced enhanced oil recovery was even on the table as a potential solution to free up oil by a research team at Texas A&M University.

LPG EOR pioneers in the 1950's included Mobil, Continental Oil (predecessor to Conoco), and Standard Oil’s Pan American Petroleum Corp. At one point, in West Texas, 7,300 barrels of propane per day were being injected into the field at depths of over 10,000 feet underground to attempt to free up more oil by the company El Paso Natural Gas, now a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan. From 1956-1958, Continental Oil injected 72,000 barrels of LPG into a Wyoming oil field. But the LPG injectant was only able to achieve an 8% volumetric coverage of the oil well when pummeled under the ground, far short of the projected 100% projected coverage range.

In 1959, there were 39 projects in seven states for LPG EOR within 24 different oil fields. The states included Texas, Oklahoma, California, Louisiana, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Nebraska. In 1966, the American Petroleum Corporation obtained a patent from the U.S. Patent Office to do LPG EOR.

Yet just before the CO2 EOR boom began in 1972 at SACROC, LPG EOR was deemed uneconomic and that era came to a close. During this era, the industry called the insertion of LPG into oil wells as a means of doing EOR “health injections,” shorthand nomenclature standing for the long-term economic health of the fields and ability to pull oil from the ground. Some even thought it could mean 100% oil recovery, but the dream never came true either for LPG EOR or for CO2 EOR.

1958 sketch of LPG EOR. Credit: The Odessa American

For flue gas EOR, Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) was an industry leader at attempting to use the drilling technique, building an 8-acre site in the Permian Basin in the 1960's. At its prime, ARCO had 97 flue gas EOR wells in the field and engineers "estimated another 30 years of production from the field with 60 per cent recovery," according to a 1966 article published by The Odessa American. The paper also described the "flue gas acting like a ram pushing the oil and gas out ahead of it."

Nitrogen EOR was also taken under consideration in the 1970's at Texas A&M University. CO2 eventually won out, though, as the key commodity needed for chemically-aided enhanced oil recovery.

During its early days, promoters of CO2 EOR referred to it as a “third crop” of oil drilling after conventional and water flooding. Some promoters also used the “born again” descriptor. CO2 EOR, did in fact help to revive oil fields. Things were looking so bleak that by 1981 for the future of domestic oil production in the United States that The New York Times declared that "King Oil is dying [a] slow, agonizing death in Texas" in a headline. That is, until CO2 EOR hit wide commercialization within a few years thereafter.

In 1970, Chevron sent a seismic shift through the industry in announcing a plan to pour $175 million into CO2 EOR at the Scurry Area Canyon Reef Operators (SACROC). A year later, it announced it would build a 220-mile pipeline for the same amount of money. By 1972, CO2 EOR had arrived on the scene at a field named SACROC and LPG EOR was a thing of the past, as was water flooding at the field, which until that point was a process that involved injecting over 500 million barrels of water into the field in the aim to enhance oil recovery. In industry lingo, doing CO2 EOR at SACROC was called “conservation” of the oil, a means to procure more oil and not let it go to waste. CO2 utilized for CO2 EOR at SACROC originally came from the Vel Verde gas plant. The Texas Railroad Commission was first approached about the idea of doing CO2 EOR at SACROC in 1969 by Standard Oil.

1972 ribbon-cutting photo-op at SACROC field. Credit: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

In 1976, The Railroad Commission of Texas further opened up the flood gates on CO2 EOR by giving Shell a test pilot permit at the 25,000-acre Denver Unit at the Wasson Oil Field. In seeking that pilot permit, the company told the agency it will ultimately produce 700 billion barrels of crude in the field. The company further stated that only the unitization of the field could make CO2 EOR profitable. At the time, Shell received its CO2 by truck at a rate of 100 tons each day for 100 straight days from the company SEC Corp. Trucking was the initial mainstay way to bring CO2 to market before the era of CO2 pipelines began.

Denver City, Texas would proceed to become a key national hub of CO2 EOR production, fueled by CO2 from the McElmo Dome, and Shell would spend $3.5 billion in its aims to commercialize CO2 EOR at the field.

Concurrently that year, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Petroleum Council published a report exploring the commercial prospects for CO2 EOR and other versions of EOR. Its lead authors included senior officials from Standard Oil, ARCO, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute, as well as an independent oil company executive.

"The most plausible source of adequate volumes of CO2, at a cost low enough for carbon dioxide flooding appears to be from either existing known and undeveloped sources of naturally oc­curring CO2, or from future such discoveries," that report declared.

By 1977, with the prospect of a CO2 production boom looming, the Caspar Star-Tribune had shifted from seeing carbon as from "useless and something of a nuisance" into "helping to overcome the energy shortfall." In 1980, Amoco (at the time owned by Standard Oil) launched the world’s largest CO2 EOR regime for $1.5B, with a goal of procuring “several hundred million barrels” of crude with the method. The then-looming Bravo Dome and the CO2 produced there would be the epicenter in that plan, also leased out and produced during those formative days by Amoco. Then in 1980, Amoco (at the time owned by Standard Oil) launched the world’s largest CO2 EOR regime for $1.5B, with a goal of procuring “several hundred million barrels” of crude with the method. The then-looming Bravo Dome and the CO2 produced there would be the epicenter in that plan, also leased out and produced during those formative days by Amoco.

"What we're talking about is the virtual rediscovery of these fields from a reserve growth viewpoint," Earl Morris, then the production manager for the company, told a local Chamber of Commerce at the time.

CO2 production became commercial at the Bravo Dome for Shell Oil's CO2 unit in 1983 after the finalization of the joint pooling agreement among landowners and the building of the Cortez Pipeline, which signed a contract in 1982 to ship oil to the Denver Unit CO2 EOR field in Denver City, Texas. Cortez Pipeline, when created, was a joint venture between Continental Resources, Shell, and Mobil. In 1980, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved a right-of-way for 100 miles of public lands for what would become the Cortez Pipeline.

In 1981, CO2 EOR production also began in New Mexico's sliver of the Permian Basin, in a pilot project operated by Conoco. With the development of the McElmo Dome, Bravo Dome, Sheep Mountain, and Doe Canyon, the Permian by the mid-1990's—and into the present—became the global epicenter for CO2 EOR production. With the prospect of CO2 EOR boom on the horizon in the early-1980’s, the industry promoters saw the burgeoning technology as an Arab oil embargo panacea and viewed Denver City, Texas increasingly as the “Carbon Dioxide Capital of the World.”

Permian CO2 EOR market w/ pipelines mapped. Credit: U.S. Department of Energy

CCUS Rebrand

Beginning in 2011-2012, the oil industry and the U.S. Department of Energy began rebranding Carbon Capture and Storage as CCUS for CO2 EOR, an effort coordinated by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy, then led by Charles D. McConnell. U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, who represented a district overlapping with the Permian Basin, also chipped in on the rebranding rollout effort during a 2011 press conference kickoff event hosted by the National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative. The National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative has since also rebranded as the Carbon Capture Coalition.

The Energy Department further spearheaded the rebrand by publishing the 2011 report titled “Improving Domestic Energy Security and Lowering CO2 Emissions with 'Next Generation' CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR),” co-written by an author list that included one who now works for Shell.

One of the co-authors of that report, Vello Kuuskraa, sat on the panel promoting the rebrand in 2012 hosted by the Atlantic Council titled "How Far Can CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Drive Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage?" Kuuskraa is the President of Advanced Resources International, an oil and gas industry consultancy whose clients have included Statoil, Southern Company, Shell, Sempra Energy, American Petroleum Institute, ConocoPhillips, BP, Total, Cheniere, Chevron, and other oil, gas, and coal industry companies. The Atlantic Council is funded by companies such as BP, Eni, Tellurian, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips—

"In the absence of US legislative action on climate policy, there has been a shift in US policy emphasis from carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to CCUS with the 'U' for 'utilization' for EOR," a description for the event explained. "This briefing investigated current domestic carbon and oil market dynamics, examined the potential for CO2 EOR, and addressed the challenges of implementing large-scale EOR with CO2 capture and storage. It also outlined supportive policies and actions that could accelerate the integrated use of CO2 EOR and CCS."

A few months after the panel, the Atlantic Council also published a paper promoting the CCUS brand. The organization titled it, "The Business Case for Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage." The paper was published by Pamela Tomski, then senior fellow for the Energy and Environment Program at the organization. Tomski was a moderator for the initial Atlantic Council panel, as well.

Tomski argued in the paper that "CCUS is a business-driven path and US DOE policy that will enable private investment to flow toward projects that contribute to reductions in US oil imports and CO2 emissions, and provide an engine for economic growth and job creation." She added that, "CO2-EOR presents the only major commercial pathway, and offers a viable national strategy for CCUS."

And then a year later in August 2013, Tomski and panelist Vello Kuuskraa -- co-author of the 2011 report -- wrote another Atlantic Council paper titled, "US Policy Shift to Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Driven by Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery." That paper argued -- pointing to the 2011 congressional testimony by McConnell and the 2011 academic paper co-authored by Kuuskraa -- that "Absent climate-change legislation, commercial drivers are necessary to advance carbon-management approaches for large-scale fossil fuel power plants and industrial facilities."

"Given this reality, the United States has shifted its policy focus from carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to one that emphasizes carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)," the paper continued, going on to note that "the primary utilization opportunity in the United States is enhanced oil recovery (EOR)."

Immediately after the publishing of the second paper, Tomski became a Senior Advisor Policy & Regulatory for The Americas at the Global CCS Institute, an organization whose members include Aera Energy, BP, Eni, Halliburton, Occidental, Shell, and ExxonMobil, among others. She served in that capacity from September 2013-March 2016

Just two months before the Atlantic Council event, the Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration rebranded as the Annual Conference on Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration.

"This addition reflects a new reality: in the absence of strong climate policy, the key driver of CCS innovation is the utilization of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR)," wrote Judith Greenwald, then the Vice President for Technology and Innovation for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES). "This is a little-known technique in which CO2 (usually drawn from naturally occurring underground reservoirs) is injected into declining oil fields to boost their output." C2ES, headed by Bob Presciape--former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Obama--has a member list including BP, Cheniere, Shell, Southern Company, Duke Energy, Equinor, Dominion and PG&E.

Greenwald proceeded to get a job as Deputy Director for Climate, Environment and Energy Efficiency for the U.S. Department of Energy and Senior Climate Advisor to U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. Moniz is a major backer of CCUS and serves on the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors of companies aiming to profit from the scaling up of the technology.

Just days before the rebranded Annual Conference on Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was adding "utilization" to the CCS moniker.

"The Energy Department is strategically focusing the program’s R&D toward the economic 'utilization' of captured carbon dioxide (CO2) for commercial purposes – evolving from CCS to Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage, or CCUS. By putting the captured CO2 to use, CCUS provides an additional business and market case for companies or organizations to pursue the environmental benefits of CCS.," wrote McConnell. "There are a number of emerging applications in this regard, but the major near-term opportunity is in CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR), or injecting CO2 into depleted oil wells to recover untapped oil."

McConnell previewed the rebrand during his 2011 confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

“What we're now beginning to talk very regularly and routinely about is carbon capture utilization and storage," said McConnell. "The utilization is speaking in terms of taking that carbon dioxide and in the process of enhanced oil recovery being able to put it into geological formations to do two things: one, to be able to recover vast quantities of unrecoverable oil without the use of CO2; and in the process of recovering and enhancing that oil and getting the returns associated with it, it's also then permanently stored and sequestered."

Yet, not everyone is enthusiastic about the name change.

"This frame fundamentally shifts the composition and purpose of CCS from a greenhouse gas mitigation strategy to a mechanism to commodify CO2 and extract more fossil fuels," explains a 2016 academic paper on the 2012 conference at which the rebranding effort took hold. "This frame maintains a commitment to fossil fuels, limits the climate mitigation potential of CCS, and assumes a need for increased energy production and consumption."

An organizer of a different CO2 EOR conference, who has done the conferences for decades even prior to CO2 EOR being lumped in as a climate solution, notes in explaining the history of his conference that "EOR was an unavoidable by-product of the injection" and that the "storage story" is something he explained could be sold as a climate solution to the U.S. Department of Energy beginning in the early 2000's.

Shift to Climate Concerns

It was not until 2007 that for the first time as an industry, Kinder Morgan CO2 Company President Charles E. Fox told the Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the U.S. Senate in 2007 -- in a hearing about carbon sequestration technologies -- that "I believe that industry is prepared to respond positively to society's call to find economical methods to mitigate climate change."

It was a marked shift away from CO2 simply as a means to enhanced oil recovery and extend the lifeline of oil wells to one wherein the drilling process was pitched as a climate solution.

The hearing came in the context of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008's looming circulation, legislation which promoted CCUS and CO2 EOR. That bill had a provision calling for a feasibility study on the construction of CO2 pipelines in service to CO2 EOR.

At the hearing, Fox also referred to CCS as a "bridging technology," echoing language used to promote natural gas drilling in shale gas reserves across the United States.

"[S]ociety will con­tinue to need electricity. I doubt that other sources such as nuclear, solar and wind energy will completely displace coal (and natural gas) during the next half century," said Fox at the hearing. "In a world largely dependent on coal-fired electrical plants, we will need to develop a CCS program-at least as a bridging technology."

CO2 EOR, Fox further explained, could serve as an entry into that "bridging."

"Injection into depleted oil and gas fields may be a first step toward injection into saline reservoirs because res­ervoir descriptions were completed for hydrocarbon recovery," Fox continued.

Advertising

CO2 EOR was a focus of advertising for the oil industry in newspapers. One of them, in 1981, featured an endorsement for Texaco's sojourn into the CO2 EOR orbit.

"How tough is it to get oil out of the ground?," asks an advertisement published in the El Paso Times, depicting Hope asking the question. "Try sipping soda through the sponge," his endorsement continues.

Bob Hope endorses CO2 EOR for Texaco in 1981. Credit: El Paso Times

A later advertisement, published in 2003 by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, boasts that "Thanks to something invisible, the Permian's future is solid." "You can't see or touch carbon dioxide, but its benefits to the Permian are tangible," the ad reads. "CO2 flooding breathes new life into secondary oil recovery projects, and Kinder Morgan CO2 is using the power of CO2 to launch the next phase of productivity in the Permian basin."

2003 CO2 EOR promotion ad by Kinder Morgan. Credit: Odessa American

Yet another 2003 newspaper advertisement by Kinder Morgan declares that "To pick up the pace, you have to step on the gas: carbon dioxide, that is."

2003 Kinder Morgan Energy Partners CO2 EOR advertisement. Credit: The Odessa American

Early Tax Incentives

The early days of CO2 EOR were bolstered by the Crude Oil Windfall Tax Act of 1980, which offered windfall tax repireve for injecting CO2 underground.

"A tertiary project will not be certified for purposes of the windfall profit tax unless it is shown to be in accordance with sound engineering principles and is expected to result in more than an insignificant increase in production," explained a 1981 paper by the firm Touche Ross & Co., now known as Deloitte.

Tertiary production tax discount in Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax of 1979. Credit: Congressional Research Service

The receipt of the windfall tax came as the Oil & Gas Journal noted in 1978 that the economics of scale for CO2 EOR might very well not work for scaling up the technology, according to those in the industry that the publication had surveyed, who were practicing that niche form of oil drilling at the time.

"The weekly trade magazine says costs are monstrous and risks are high for enhanced recovery techniques," The Daily Oklahoman explained of the trade journal's findings. "Compounding the problem are the long lead times and corresponding expenditures requried in nearly every enhanced-recovery project as producers try to choose the most efficient recovery method for each reservoir."

That same year, an ARCO oil executive said at a July 1978 congressional hearing that "under current domestic oil price policy, except for a small amount of thermal oil, essentially no enhanced recovery oil will ever be produced.”

"Welcome to Denver City" sign at dawn of CO2 EOR boom in Denver City, TX in 1981. The field is the largest CO2 EOR production site in the world, now operated by Occidental and previously Shell. Credit: The Odessa American

Shell stated that the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 helped to get the Denver Unit off the ground, the largest CO2 EOR field on planet, now owned by Occidental.

Above-ground view in 1981 of the Denver Unit CO2 EOR production field in Denver City, TX. It's the largest CO2 EOR field in the world, formerly operated by Shell and now operated by Occidental. Credit: The Odessa American

The state and federal government also heavily financed CO2 EOR research and development work in its early years.

Obama 2015 USGS Report

In 2015 under the Obama Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey published a report, "Fundamentals of Carbon Dioxide-Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR)—A Supporting Document of the Assessment Methodology for Hydrocarbon Recovery Using CO2-EOR Associated with Carbon Sequestration," a report mandated for publishing via 2007 legislation. That report detailed CO2 EOR recovery potential within U.S. oil fields.

The legislation, the Department of Energy Carbon Capture and Storage Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 2007 (S.962), received lobbying support from companies such as BP, Occidental, ExxonMobil, and the U.S. Oil and Gas Association.

Pipeline Proposals

Denbury has proposed to construct the 105-mile Cedar Creek Anticline Pipeline (CCA Pipeline), which would run from Fallen County, Montana to Bowman County, North Dakota as an extension of the Greencore Pipeline. The company has announced construction slated to commence in June 2021 in its quarter one earnings call for 2021. It will carry CO2 generated as a by-product from the Lost Cabin Gas Plant Capture Project in Wyoming, owned by ConocoPhillips, to North Dakota to faciliate CO2 enhanced oil recovery.

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In 2019, the Lost Cabin plant emitted 191,281.7 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, the equivalent of 41,600 cars driven on the road for a year and 34,745 homes' electricity use for one year. The Lost Cabin Plant also emits high levels of carbonyl sulfide, H2S, PM 2.5, PM 10, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide

Climate, Air Quality Impacts

Multiple studies have pointed to the climate change impacts of beefing up CO2 EOR. They come with the backdrop of a 2019 U.S. Department of Energy report concluding that there has been "no official mechanism for reporting leaks" of CO2 for most of the history of CO2 EOR production. "In addition, little information is available on project post-closure status and CO2 behavior in the subsurface post-injection," the report continues.

A 2019 study published in the journal Applied Energy concludes that "from [a] thermodynamics point of view, CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with CCS option is not sustainable, i.e., during the life cycle of the process more energy is consumed than the energy produced from oil."

A decade earlier, another study came to the same conclusion: CO2 EOR is a carbon-positive emissions drilling process. That paper, published by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, surmised that “without displacement of a carbon intensive energy source, CO2-EOR systems will result in net carbon emissions.”

"We calculated that between 3.7 and 4.7 metric tons of CO2 are emitted for every metric ton of CO2 injected. The fields currently inject and sequester less than 0.2 metric tons of CO2 per bbl of oil produced," the researchers further detailed. "In order to entirely offset system emissions, e.g., making the net CO2 emissions zero, 0.62 metric tons of CO2 would need to be injected and permanently sequestered for every bbl of oil produced. The only way to sequester this amount of CO2 would be to operate a sequestration project concurrently with the CO2-EOR project."

In 2020, researchers June Sekera and Andreas Lichtenberger came to similar summations in doing a survey of over 200 studies done on Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage to date with regards to greenhouse gas emissions in their paper titled, "Assessing Carbon Capture: Public Policy, Science, and Societal Need: A Review of the Literature on Industrial Carbon Removal."

"We found that papers that deem CCS-EOR to be a climate mitigation technique either fail to account for all emissions (i.e., they perform only a partial life cycle analysis) and/or they make an assumption that CCS-EOR-produced oil 'displaces' conventionally produced fossil fuel energy," they wrote, surmising instead that "data show that the process actually results in net emissions."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data further shows that at the CO2 treatment facilities servicing some of the major CO2 EOR fields at Texas' Permian Basin, the facilities emit high levels of carbon dioxide and other copollutants into the atmosphere.

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One of them, the SACROC CO2 treatment facility servicing the SACROC CO2 EOR field -- operated by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners -- emitted 425,971.5 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2019. That amounts to 92,640 passenger vehicles driven for a year and 77,375 homes' electricity use for one year, according to the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator. The SACROC facility also emits high levels of PM 10, VOCs, ammonia, PM 2.5, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, methane, NOx, and sulfur dioxide, according to EPA pollution data.

The Denver Unit and Wasson CO2 removal plans, both of which service the Denver Unit CO2 EOR field, also emitted a total of 153,035.7 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2019. That equates to 33,282 passenger vehicles driven for one year and 27,798 homes' electricity use for one year.

Occidental's Denver City CO2 removal plant in Denver City, Texas. Credit: Google Maps.

The Denver Unit CO2 removal plant also emits high levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, as well as PM 2.5 and PM 10, according to the EPA Air Pollutant Report for the facility. The separation facility is located within three miles of over 5,100 people, 66% of whom are people of color and over 75% of whom have a family income of below $75,000 per year. Only just above 15% of the population in that 3-mile radius has a college degree and 63% of the population in that radius has a Latinx ethnic origin.

Denver City CO2 removal plant next to oil rigs. Photo Credit: Google Maps

According to Texas Center on Environmental Quality data, the Wasson CO2 Removal Plant owned by Occidental also emitted 19,312 pounds of carbon monoxide via designated illegal air pollution incidents into the atmosphere between January 1, 2020 and February 24, 2021. The facility also emitted over 3,400 pounds of H2S; over 15,700 pounds of non-methane, non-ethane natural gas; over 2,250 pounds of oxides of nitrogen; and over 314,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide

Between January 2020 and March 14, 2021, Occidental's Anton CO2 dehydration plant in Shallowater, Texas had 11,800 pounds of carbon monoxide incidents, 637 pounds of H2S; over 9,200 pounds of non-methane, non-ethane natural gas; and over 56,300 pounds of SO2, and 1,672 pounds of NOx.

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And between June 2020 through January 2021, the company's Denver Unit CO2 Recovery Plant had incident events which emitted over 40,400 pounds of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, more than 65 pounds of H2S, over 23,200 pounds of non-methane/non-ethane natural gas, over 5,000 pounds of NOx, and over 6,000 pounds of SO2.

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Three of the company's CO2 processing plants sit within the top ten most polluting facilities in Texas when ranked by SO2 emissions, according to a 2020 report by the group Environment Texas, when ranked by illegal air pollution events. They include the West Seminole San Andres Unit CO2 facilities, the Seminole Gas Processing Plant, and the Willard CO2 Separation Plant. But when measuring all co-pollutants, five of the top six polluters in the TCEQ's Region 2 (Lubbock) are CO2 separation/removal/recovery plants.

Top 10 polluters for TCEQ Region 2. Credit: Environment Texas

Willard CO2 Plant in Denver City, Texas. Credit: Google Maps

The main Permian-area gas plants which create carbon as a by-product, thusly used for CO2 EOR production, are also highly polluting, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data.

The Pikes Peak Gas Plant -- located in Fort Stockton, Texas and operated by Occidental -- is in the 87.8 percentile for PM 2.5 emitted into the atmosphere, 92.7 percentile for ozone, 86.1 for other air toxics, and on the 83.9 percentile for respiratory hazard index. The plant also emits high levels of benzene, formaldehyde, toluene, carbon monoxide, ethylbenzene, xylene, VOCs, hexane and climate change-causing CO2 into the atmosphere, according to other EPA data.

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The Terrell Gas Plant in Sheffield, Texas shows similar attributes, sitting in the 68.9 percentile for PM 2.5, 70.3 for ozone, 67.8 for air toxics cancer risk, and 66.7 for respiratory hazard index. Like Pikes Peak, the plant is operated by Occidental. The facility also emits high levels of VOCs, formaldehyde, CO2, methane, toluene, acetaldehyde, benzene, carbon monoxide, PM 2.5, acrolein, SO2, hexane, methanol, and NOx into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gas emissions data from the EPA shows that the facility emitted 50,011 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2019.

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Beyond Texas, at Denbury's Bogue Chitto, Mississippi's CO2 EOR site, the company emits high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), hexane, carbon monoxide, VOCs, benzene, formaldehyde, and PM 2.5, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

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CO2 Pipelines, Regulation

There are 5,000 miles of CO2 pipelines in the U.S. Most of those pipelines connect to Natural CO2 Source Fields. This compares to over 535,000 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines (predominantly crude oil and oil condensate) and 2.2 million miles of natural gas lines.

Unlike oil and gas pipelines, though, CO2 pipelines are largely unregulated, a precedent set in the permitting and construction of the current longest CO2 pipeline, the Cortez Pipeline. That pipeline, now owned by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners -- and at the time owned by Shell, Mobil, and Continental Resources -- brings CO2 from McElmo Dome to the Permian Basin CO2 EOR fields.

In a ruling made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees the interstate regulation of gas pipelines, the agency decided in 1979 that CO2 does not amount to a “natural gas” under the Natural Gas Act and is thus not under FERC's jurisdiction. In 1991, the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) -- the precursor to the (PHMSA) -- further ruled that CO2 is not a "hazardous" waste under federal regulatory law. This came after advocacy on behalf of that policy by the American Petroleum Institute and Exxon, according to the Federal Register report for the final rule-making, with API bringing the petition to the agency to amend the law. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), PHMSA's precursor, further "ruled in 1980 that Congress intended to exclude any 'gas' from its jurisdiction, and therefore it did not have authority over CO2."

"On March 16, 1989, the American Petroleum Institute (API) petitioned the Department to amend part 195 to include the regulation of pipelines that transport CO2," the Federal Register details. "The recommendations contained in this petition are the product of a task force formed under API auspices, consisting of representatives of nine companies that own or operate CO2 pipelines. The participating companies were Amerada Hess Corporation, Amoco Pipeline Company, ARCO Pipeline Company, Chevron Pipe Line Company, Enron Corporation, Exxon Pipeline Company, Mobil Pipe Line Company, Production Operators, Inc. and Shell Pipe Line Corporation."

Many of those companies, at the time, were also operators of CO2 fields. States, too, have a patchwork of regulations aimed at CO2 pipelines.

In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also ruled that CO2 was not a "hazardous waste," as defined by Resource Conservation and Recovery Act when injected underground. It was a docket item commented on by companies such as Texas Oil and Gas Association, Chevron, Southern Company, and American Petroleum Institute.

CO2 EOR Explosions, Incidents

Texas Blowouts Study

According to an academic study published in 2014, Texas—the predominant national hub for CO2 EOR— has had 616 recorded blowouts in its fields from 1942-2013. Of those, 158 took place between 1998-2011.

2020 Yazoo County Jackson Dome Pipelines Blowout

In February 2020, the 24-inch Delhi Pipeline—which sends CO2 from the Jackson Dome to the Hastings Field in Alvin, Texas—exploded in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Documents obtained via open records request show the CO2 plume stretched for between 30-40 kilometers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency revealed the plume stretched all the way northwest stretching beyond Holly Bluff, Mississippi.

Aftermath of Feb. 2020 CO2 pipeline explosion in Yazoo County, MS. Credit: Mississippi Emergency Management Agency

Plume shown from NOAA program showing February 22 CO2 pipeline rupture in Yazoo County, MS from Denbury's Delhi Pipeline.

An on-scene investigator described a “green fog” of both hydrogen sulfide and CO2 leaking into the atmosphere across the highway from the ruptured pipeline at the scene of the incident. Though no one died, 46 people were hospitalized and 300 were evacuated from their homes. Three men passed out in their cars at the scene of the pipeline rupture, knocked unconscious.

A sheriff’s investigator stated that those rescued during the incident were acting “like zombies” and some were “foaming at the mouth.” The sheriff deputy called to the scene also had to be hospitalized. Documents obtained via open records request show over 31,000 barrels of CO2 leaked into the atmosphere.

An incident report obtained via Mississippi Public Records Act from the Yazoo County Sheriff's Department shows that the investigator wrote that he was "having difficulty breathing, as though I'd just run a mile and was out of breath," in explaining his on-scene response. That investigator further wrote that some people he approached on-scene seemed "confused" and did not "understand what I was saying" when he spoke to them. In that state, the investigator said he had to "forcefully" get them into his squad car.

The class-action plaintiffs' law firm Morgan & Morgan is representing victims of the pipeline blowout, saying in a February statement, "Our hope is to uncover all the facts that led to this incident and hold those responsible accountable for their actions or omissions." In October 2020, near the same area in Yazoo County, the same pipeline had another CO2 leak. It led officials to temporarily shut down State Highway 3.

Records obtained via the Mississippi Public Records Act show that this pipeline blowout and leak was even bigger in size: just under 42,000 barrels of CO2 escaped from the pipeline.

Other records obtained from the Chief Operating Officer of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Matthew Hewings, critiquing Denbury. He wrote, "I can't help but wonder if Denbury is being entirely forthcoming in their [National Response Center] reporting, which makes getting accurate information from the field problematic. At some point, H2S was brought into the equation - then it was never spoken of again. I'm not saying it is cover up, but it would be awfully convenient for Denbury .. legally and financially ... if H2S was left out of the discussion."

According to a 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Jackson Dome CO2 stream consists of 5% H2S, the highest concentration for any the CO2 source fields.

In another email, Hewings wrote "It is curious that the HZS or anything other than CO2 is not annotated below, especially since the locals reported a green gas and noxious odor."

"[David] Battaly (Emergency Manager at the agency) reported an orange haze like a sand storm. CO2 is colorless and odorless at low concentrations, yet smells acidic at high concentrations," Hewings continued. "It sure seems as if something other than just CO2 was present. Additionally, the extreme symptoms reported by the victims are consistent with exposure to HZS. Something doesn't add up ..."

A company pipeline also ruptured in 2012 at the Hastings Oil Field in Brazoria County, with no one suffering injuries and no reported spillage or environmental damage relayed to the Houston Chronicle.

In 2007 in Amite County at a Denbury-operated CO2 EOR well, a blowout led to three nearby homes being evacuated. Residents in the area said it sounded like "a loud roaring noise" akin to "when an airplane flies over real low," even a mile and a half from the blowout site. Three days after the blowout started, it was "still spewing so much carbon dioxide, saltwater and oil that officials...closed a state highway and imposed a five-mile no-fly zone indefinitely," a local newspaper reported, also noting detectable levels of benzene in the area surrounding the well.

In an editorial for the Enterprise-Journal, one of the state's biggest local newspapers, the editorial board wrote "If it happened...in Amite County, it certainly can happen anyplace where there's drilling activity. The recovery of oil and natural gas from thousands of feet below the surface—two or three miles below, and sometimes deeper—is an amazing technological achievement that we tend to take for granted. But it is dangerous work, and there is plenty of risk involved." The editorial goes on to ask questions about what the long-term impacts are of plugged CO2 EOR wells, calling on the state and Denbury to "be completely forthcoming about exactly what happened" in the incident.

Half a year earlier in Lincoln County, Mississippi, a CO2 EOR well leaked also owned by Denbury leaked. It led to the evacuation of several homes.

Coffeyville Pipeline Blowouts

The Coffeyville CO2 Pipeline, which connects to the Coffeyville Gasification Plant in Kansas, experienced four pipeline failures from 2015-2016. The pipeline was constructed in 2012.

"There were two underground mainline pipeline failures and one above ground peripheral tubing failure in 2015," the owner of the pipeline, Chaparral Energy, Inc., explained in initial public offering filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "There was one underground mainline pipeline failure in 2016. The 2015 above ground peripheral tubing failure was the result of a tubing connection failure. ...As a result of a 2015 Pipeline Safety Inspection, we have been issued a Notice of Proposed Violation with a Proposed Civil Penalty in the amount of $158,000. We are in the process of contesting this Proposed Civil Penalty and are currently in negotiations concerning the aforementioned penalty."

The company received a corrective action order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) in 2015, after a landowner reported seeing a vapor cloud emanating from the pipeline on August 25, 2015 and the company confirmed the pipeline had leaked over 10,000 barrels of CO2 into the atmosphere.

SACROC Explosions

In 2020, a CO2 plant servicing SACROC exploded in Snyder, Texas. No one was hurt, but videos taken by area residents showed a powerful blast that took place at the facility.

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Snyder gas plant explosion

"Kinder Morgan experienced abnormal operations at its SACROC unit, located in Snyder, Texas, as a result of a pipeline pigging operation," Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, operating partner at the plant, said of the blast in an official statement. "A flare functioned as designed to minimize the impact of the abnormal operation, and the fire has burned out. The company isolated the facility and worked with local resources, including the Snyder Fire Department, to secure the area. There were no injuries, the appropriate regulatory agencies were notified and air monitoring was conducted as a precaution."

In October 2017, a pipeline located at the SACROC CO2 EOR field operated by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners also exploded, injuring 8-10 people, including—a local media outlet reported—"one person who had shrapnel in his leg and back." Residents in the area said the blowout, which happened at Country Road 258, felt like an earthquake.

Wyoming Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Leakage Incident

In 2012, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality cited the company Andarko Petroleum for leaking CO2 into a stream at a CO2 EOR site and killing six ducks.

Four years later at that same field named the Salt Creek Oil Field, the company Fleur de Lis Energy -- which had since acquired the field from Anadarko and was financed by the private equity giant KKR in doing so -- was responsible for a massive CO2 leakage from another CO2 EOR field in Midwest, Wyoming. This led to an evacuation from an a public school located right next to the drilling site for an entire school year. The school had an emergency evacuation when teachers, staff, and faculty present smelled "gas-like odors."

County air quality test results in the jurisdiction housing the school documented that CO2 “levels inside the school were 26 times the recommended limit, which made some areas of the school oxygen-deficient,” Inside Energy reported. “Levels of benzene, which can have serious short and long-term health effects, were 200 times the amount deemed safe by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control.”

A September 2016 report, published by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in the aftermath of the CO2 leakage incident, explained that "FDL detected levels of CO2 as high as 26,000 ppm. Oxygen levels in some areas were below 19.5%, which is considered oxygen-deficient and an immediate health hazard."

Midwest School air sampling chart after 2016 CO2 EOR leakage in Midwest, WY. Credit: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

The report also detailed that in many areas of the school, oxygen levels sat at 20%, just above the oxygen-deficient metric. Inside the school library, CO2 levels sat at 12,300 ppm. The agency also discovered high levels of VOCs, benzene, hexane, heptane, and other chemical compounds in a school classroom.

Air sample results for the Midwest School. Credit: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Canada Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Leakage Incident

In Weyburn in 2011, a city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, CO2 also leaked from a production facility operated by the company Cenovus named Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project at a massive scale on a residential property. The leak led to “killing animals and sending groundwater foaming to the surface like shaken-up soda pop,” the Canadian Broadcast Corporation reported. Other partners on the project at the time included Apache Canada, Aramco, Chevron, Schlumberger, and Shell Canada.

"At night we could hear this sort of bang like a cannon going off," one of the impacted residents, who moved with her husband out of her home shortly thereafter out of safety concerns, told The Tyee. "We'd go out and check the gravel pit and, in the walls, it (had) blown a hole in the side and there would be all this foaming coming out of this hole."

The residents who lived on the property said that when the carbon leaked, “It would fizz and foam" and they eventually moved because “It was getting too dangerous to live there."

A scientific soil survey report published on the incident found "high concentrations of CO2 that averaged about 23,000 ppm over most of the property and a major anomaly with concentrations as high as 110,607 ppm in the north central part of the property." The report noted that the CO2 found at the property matched the chemical properties of that shipped via pipeline from the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in Beulah, North Dakota, while also noting it also found oil seepage as part of the leaked chemical compound,

"Following injection of CO2 over one month, the injected CO2 was detected at two producing wells 100 meters and 500 meters from the injection well," the report further details, also noting that no CO2 pipelines crossed property lines and that the closest CO2 EOR injection site was a mile away.

The property-owning family had raised concerns about issues for years prior to the incident, hiring a private scientist instead to perform the research, after failing to get swift action.

“It’s a really (sic) story about a government’s failure to regulate,” Barry Robinson, a staff lawyer with the organization Ecojustice, told The Tyee. “A farm couple shouldn’t have to hire a private contractor to get a proper study done. The government appears to be in denial about its golden goose.”

Denver City Deaths, DOE Study

In 1975, at the “Carbon Dioxide Capital of the World” in Denver City, Texas, nine people died via poisoning from hydrogen sulfide that had escaped from a CO2 EOR well. H2S is present as small percentage of the Natural CO2 Source Fields, such as Bravo Dome, McElmo Dome, Jackson Dome, Sheep Mountain, St. John's Dome, and Doe Canyon and was also produced at a local gas plant from which the CO2 was purchased for CO2 EOR at the Denver Unit Field.

Map of Denver City CO2 EOR fields. Credit: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas

The H2S leak was the second most deadly oil incident in U.S. history behind the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11. Alongside H2S, CO2 was found inside one of the victim's bloodstream. ARCO's punishment was a $1,125 fine for its damages. Many families died, too, including chickens, rabbits, birds, dogs, cats, and a donkey.

A 1979 Austin American-Statesman articled noted that those living in Denver City got used to living with the smell of sulfur, with one oil worker telling the newspaper, "If you derive your livelihood from this area, you say, 'Man, I love that smell.'". A 1975 feature article published in Texas Monthly magazine further noted, "Visitors, say the local folks, are the only ones who ever complain about the smell. That’s the smell of money, they’ll tell you. You’ll get used to it, they say."

The leaking injection well contained 95% carbon, 4% H2S and 1% miscellaneous gases.

A month after the incident, the Railroad Commission of Texas passed a rule mandating a public notice and hearing if H2S is under proposal for use in a CO2 EOR well. Additionally, the RRC banned H2S facilities and pipelines from sitting within 500 feet of homes or public roads without a special use permit from the agency. Companies also were compelled to have contingency plans on-file in the case of potential leaks. Further, companies operating injection facilities which include H2S were ordered to gate or fence them off.

Companies such as Exxon and trade associations like the Texas Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association and Texas Chemical Council came out against the proposed rule, arguing it shouldn't apply to facilities "which are continuously manned or monitored." A spokesman for the Chemical Council added that "We believe the public is adequately protected by safety measures taken by the industry within fenced areas and by existing governmental regulations."

Two years later, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy published a report on the commercial prospects of CO2 EOR which -- pointing to the Texas Rule 36 policy -- voiced concern about its ability to put CO2 EOR's growth to a halt.

"[T]here is a concern over the environmental impact regarding the uses of hydrogen sulfide contaminated gases," reads that report. "In particular the Texas Railroad Commis­sion has promulgated Rule 36 restricting permission to use gases contaminated to a certain. level. The resulting add i­tional costs of purification of contaminated gases could very well impede development of these sources."

H2S Leakages, Blowouts

Beyond Denver City, a 1993 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study documented that H2S had leaked out of at least six other CO2 EOR fields between 1972-1993 in ways that had documentable and reportable consequences felt by people and the environment.

One of those, which happened in 1990 in Heidelberg, Mississippi, was a CO2 EOR well blowout and accompanying fire. Three died and 350 residents evacuated. That field is today operated by Denbury. One worker suffered a burn that impacted 40% of his body. A local newspaper reported the air in the surrounding area smelling like "rotten egg odor" in the incident's immediate aftermath.

"From what I have been told, water went into [the well], and when pressure built up, it blew out," Jaspar County Sheriff Tom Green told the media at the time, in the immediate aftermath of the explosion. A resident who lived near the explosion site futher stated that "I thought they were sinking a test well and it shook and shook the house. I looked out my door and saw a fireball in the sky and a lot of smoke," she said, continuing, "Never in my life have I felt anything like this before." A firefighter who was on the scene further detailed, of the exploded oil rig, "Ain't nothing left of that...It ain't nothing but a charcoal pile."

And in 1991 in Yoakum County, home of the Wasson Field for CO2 EOR development serviced by the McElmo Dome and then operated by Shell, a gathering line consisting of 1.2% H2S ruptured. It killed seven cows, a coyote and rabbits.

Texas Earthquakes, Sinkholes

Between 2006-2011, there were 18 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or higher at the Cogdell Oil Field in the Permian Basin, where CO2 EOR is conducted.

"[S]ince 2004 significant volumes of gases including supercritical CO2 have been injected into the Cogdell field. The timing of gas injection suggests it may have contributed to triggering the recent seismic activity," a 2018 study explains. "If so, this represents an instance where gas injection has triggered earthquakes having magnitudes 3 and larger."

Other studies have also linked CO2 EOR in the Permian Basin to other types of seismic activity. A 2018 study concluded CO2 EOR happening there is causing a sinkhole to form in a four-county, 4,000-square-foot region within the oil field that's about half the. In examining 11 CO2 injection wells sites, the study detected surface uplift of over an inch in size.

"Radar satellite images show significant movement of the ground across localities in a 4000-square-mile area — in one place as much as 40 inches over the past two-and-a-half years," a press release on the study explains. "[The] researchers found a significant relationship between ground movement and oil activities that include pressurized fluid injection into the region’s geologically unstable rock formations."

"Fluid injection includes waste saltwater injection into nearby wells, and carbon dioxide flooding of depleting reservoirs to stimulate oil recovery," the press release continued. "Injected fluids increase the pore pressure in the rocks, and the release of the stress is followed by ground uplift. The researchers found that ground movement coincided with nearby sequences of wastewater injection rates and volume and CO2 injection in nearby wells."

Another 2015 study also showed that the ground lifted 10 cm in the SACROC field, the pioneering CO2 EOR basin, between 2007-2011. The authors of the study concluded it was "mainly caused by CO2 injection." In that time period, as much CO2 was injected underground as the time period dating between the premier days of the field dating between 1972-2003. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is the dominant CO2 EOR driller at SACROC.

Sequestering vs. Recycling

During the CO2 EOR process, CO2 is not merely stored underground immediately. Instead, it is recycled as part of what the Global CCS Institute describes as a "closed loop," which "reduces the need to purchase additional CO2."

A closed-loop CO2 EOR system, exhibited in a 2013 NETL report.

A 1976 study commissioned by the Federal Energy Administration pointed out that, from the onset, CO2 EOR would not be economically feasible for the oil industry without recycling technology. The study explained the industry will necessitate "major improvements in...recycling...before the full potential of this recovery tech­nique can be realized."

As early as 1981, a petroleum engineering coordinator for Shell told colleagues at the Society for Petroleum Engineers that CO2 for CO2 EOR should be recycled because it "is a very valuable commodity" and "it does involve large amounts for oil recovery."

In 1991, a production supervisor at Shell at the Jackson Dome further explained, "We're recycling everything we produce. Eventually the flood will be mature enough that all we'll be doing is recycling. We won't have to bring any more down from Jackson Dome."

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue also explained the CO2 EOR process as one centering around recycling in a legal ruling pertaining to disputes over royalty payments at the Bravo Dome. "At the surface, the CO2 is separated from the oil," explains the filing. "The oil is sold and the CO2 reused again in the EOR reservoir. This means the CO2 is part of a continual process and is not sold."

In a 2018 presentation, Denbury further concluded that by 15 years into a CO2 EOR operation, 20% of its CO2 will be recycled. By 20 years, that number goes up to 50%. By 25 years, that number goes up to 70% and by 30 years, that number goes up to 80% recycled.

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory put it more simply in a 2019 paper on CO2 EOR, writing, "the objective of CO2 EOR operations is not to store CO2, but to maximize oil production. However, some of the injected CO2 ultimately does get stored in the reservoir as part of the process.

“The need for the field to purchase new CO2 is gradually reduced over time,” further explains a 2019 paper published by the U.S. Department of Energy. “As a result, a greater percentage of the CO2 injected is from production, separation, and recycling versus newly-purchased CO2.” That paper further explained that “approximately half has been recovered and recycled” and more broadly “CO2 EOR operators try to maximize oil and gas production and minimize the amount of CO2 left in the reservoir.”

A 2010 paper by the National Energy Technology Laboratory also explains the exact money saved by doing the recycling process, writing that "Because of the cost of naturally sourced CO2—roughly $10-15 per metric ton—a CO2 flood operator seeks to recycle as much as possible to minimize future purchases of the gas."

Regulatory Enforcement Actions

According to a 2019 lawsuit brought jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Denbury was responsible for 25 oil spills between 2008 and 2014, including spilling "5,000 barrels of oil and water mixture in the Tinsley field in central Mississippi’s Yazoo County after a pipe shifted because of ground settlement and erosion," the Associated Press reported. The Tinsley Field is one of Denbury's CO2 EOR fields connected to the Jackson Dome. The lawsuit was brought concurrently with a consent decree, with Denbury paying out $3.5 million in fines to both the EPA and MDEQ.

Denbury also paid a $662,500 fine to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in 2013 for a 2011 CO2 EOR well blowout which also occurred in Yazoo County. It was the largest fine assessed by the agency for the past decade preceding it.

In August 2011, "So much carbon dioxide came out [of the CO2 EOR well] that it settled in some hollows, suffocating deer and other animals, Mississippi officials said," AP further reported. "The company ultimately drilled a new well to plug the old one, and removed 27,000 tons of drilling mud and contaminated soil and 32,000 barrels of liquids from the site."

As that fine was assessed, the company was simultaneously combatting another CO2 release at its Dehli CO2 EOR field which had happened almost a month and a half prior to the assessment of the fine. The Associated Press reported that "carbon dioxide and drilling fluids broke through the ground's surface" at the Delhi site.

At the Delhi incident, AP also reported that "Concentrations of carbon dioxide were so high initially that [a Louisiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman] said responders wore breathing apparatus to keep from suffocating."

Articles and Resources

• "Snyder gas plant explosion (courtesy of Melisa Nelson)," WSAV-TV, June 2, 2020
• "Snyder Volunteer Fire Department," Facebook.com, June 2, 2020
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