NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States, where oil production has been declining since the 1970s, has the potential to boost its oil reserves four-fold through advanced injection of carbon dioxide into depleted oilfields, the Department of Energy said on Friday.
The United States, the world's top oil consumer, has been successfully pumping small amounts or carbon dioxide into depleted oil and natural gas fields for 30 years to push out hard-to-reach fossil fuels.
The DOE said 89 billion barrels could potentially be added to current proved U.S. oil reserves of 21.9 billion barrels through injection of carbon dioxide, the main gas that most scientists believe is warming the earth.
The DOE gave no time frame for when the extra barrels could be added.
The amount is about what the United States, at current demand, uses in 12 years.
Adding billions of barrels in reserves is dependent upon the availability of commercial CO2, the DOE's fossil energy office said.
"Next generation enhanced recovery with carbon dioxide was judged to be a 'game changer' in oil production, one capable of doubling recovery efficiency," DOE said in a release.Ads_kid=0;Ads_bid=0;Ads_xl=300;Ads_yl=250;Ads_xp='';Ads_yp='';Ads_opt=0;Ads_wrd=Ads_RVS;Ads_prf='';Ads_par='';Ads_cnturl='';Ads_sec=0;Ads_channels='';
Up to 430 billion barrels could be added by pumping the gas into fields that have yet to be discovered, the DOE said. - MORE
Um... define "small amounts" because I recall a story about an entire village in Africa that suffocated when a giant bubble of CO2 surfaced.
"In Cameroon on Aug 21, 1986 an invisible bubble of CO2 suffocated 1,746 people to death when it erupted from a volcano under Lake Nyos." - googlesearch?
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