CO2 could boost oil recovery from North Sea

Durham University researchers have shown that using carbon dioxide (CO₂) to enhance the recovery from existing North Sea oil fields could yield an extra three billion barrels of oil over the next 20 years.

Jon Gluyas, a professor in CCS and geo-energy at Durham University’s Department of Earth Sciences, who came up with the figure, said: ’Time is running out to make best use of our precious remaining oil reserves because we’re losing vital infrastructure as the oil fields decline and are abandoned. Once the infrastructure is removed, we will never go back and the opportunity will be wasted.’

Prof Gluyas said that action was urgently needed to develop the capture and transportation infrastructure to take the CO₂ to where it is needed. ’My figures show that developing this technology could lead to a huge rejuvenation of the North Sea,’ he said.

Oil is usually recovered by flushing oil wells through with water at pressure. Since the 1970s, oil fields in West Texas have been successfully exploited using carbon dioxide. CO₂ is pumped as a fluid into oil fields at elevated pressure and helps sweep the oil to the production wells by contacting parts of the reservoirs not accessed by water injection. The result is much greater oil production.