IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO₂ Monitoring and Storage Project
Project # 41149

Primary Performing Organization:  We pay NRCAN but all of the contracts are managed from PTRC – Petroleum Technology Research Center
Natural Resources Canada      

The purpose of this project is to expand what is known about carbon capture and storage through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using carbon dioxide (CO₂).  The EOR program takes place at two oil fields in Canada – Weyburn and Midale.  The project’s CO₂ is transported, via a pipeline, from a coal-based synfuels plant in the United States.  When pumped into the oil field, the CO₂ leads to displacement of additional oil.

The source of the CO₂ is the Dakota Gasification Company’s generating plant in Beula, North Dakota.  From the pressure station at the Beula plant, several tons per day of CO₂ travel over a 205-mile pipeline to EnCana Corporation’s Weyburn oil field and Apache Limited’s Midale field in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan.  See map of pipeline route from Beula to Weyburn.

The benefit to EnCana and Apache of the EOR project is production of millions of barrels of otherwise unavailable oil, significantly extending the life of the oil fields.  The benefit to the Dakota Gasification Company is profit from selling the CO₂ to EnCana and Apache.  And the benefit to the environment is that millions of tons of CO₂ that would otherwise be discharged into the atmosphere will be sequestered.

Specific project objectives are to:

• Demonstrate that sequestration into geologic formations can provide long-term storage of CO₂.
• Determine how much CO₂ is actually stored during EOR operations.
• Monitor and verify the amount of CO₂ that is sequestered over time.
• Study the dependence of CO₂ storage on geology.

Contact:
Project Manager: Lynn A. Brickett, lynn.brickett@netl.doe.gov

Related Papers and Publications:

• Weyburn CO₂ Sequestration Project Fact Sheet [PDF]