Another Wyoming energy company is proposing to revitalize an aging oil field in central Wyoming using carbon dioxide to enhance oil recovery, federal officials said.
As part of the project, Devon Gas Services LP is seeking Bureau of Land Management permission to construct a 47-mile long pipeline to move carbon dioxide gas from southwest Wyoming to the Beaver Creek field in Fremont County, according to BLM officials.
BLM spokeswoman Missy Cook said the BLM's Lander field office is requesting public input on the company's proposed pipeline right-of-way for the construction and operation of the 8-inch diameter buried pipeline.
The pipeline would be used to transport carbon dioxide gas - gathered from the ExxonMobil Shute Creek-LaBarge gas processing plant and Bairoil metering facility to the Beaver Creek Gas Plant located south of Riverton.
Enhanced oil recovery typically involves efforts to improve the flow of oil from a reservoir that has already been produced by conventional means. Over time, oil reservoir pressure drops off, and so does the rate of oil production.
Carbon dioxide, in liquid form, mixes with the oil and pushes it to production wells. The carbon dioxide can then be separated from the oil and reused, or stored in the oil reservoir so that it is not released into the atmosphere.
BLM officials estimated in a scoping statement that approximately 35 million standard cubic feet per day of carbon dioxide would initially be transported through the buried pipeline.
Cook said the majority of the proposed route falls on BLM-administered public lands. The pipeline would parallel other pipelines, electric power distribution lines, or roads for about 35 miles. The remaining 12 miles of pipeline would involve state and private lands.
Oil production in Wyoming has declined at an annual rate of about 5 percent since 1991, according to Wyoming Geological Survey figures.
Injections of carbon dioxide to increase oil recovery has been employed since the early 1950s nationwide, but the first commercial application of carbon dioxide flooding in Wyoming was Amoco's Bairoil Project in 1986.
Last year, the Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced plans to pump carbon dioxide into its Patrick Draw Field Monell Unit to increase pressure and to push the oil to production wells.
Anadarko also used carbon dioxide to revitalize the century-old Salt Creek oil field near Midwest in Natrona County.
Cook said if approved, construction on the pipeline is estimated to take from 8-10 months to complete. Devon officials have set a tentative, in-service date for the pipeline project for June 2008.
source news : casperstartribune.net
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