The energy industry has found a new way to both Cut Emissions and Pump More Oil:
The energy industry has found a new way to dispose of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide: pump it back into the underground oil reservoirs from whence much of it came.Five million tons of CO2 has been successfully pumped underground into the Weyburn oil field in a pilot project in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The CO2 is piped from the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, a giant ‘gasification’ plant near Beulah, North Dakota.
Not only does the project dispose of the nasty CO2, the pressure from the gas helps to extract more oil. The field’s oil-recovery rate has been doubled, and its life extended for another 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.