National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative

The National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative (NEORI) released recommendations on February 28, 2012, to boost domestic oil production and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through the expanded use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). NEORI is a coalition of industry, state, environmental and labor leaders convened by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and the Great Plains Institute. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Congressman Mike Conaway (R-TX) welcomed the group’s recommendations at an event on Capitol Hill. Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), John Hoeven (R-ND), Richard Lugar (R-IN), and Congressmen Mike Conaway (R-TX) and Rick Berg (R-ND) released written statements of support.

 
In CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR), oil producers inject CO2 into wells to draw more oil to the surface. The practice helps sustain production in otherwise declining oil fields and currently accounts for 6 percent of U.S. oil production, but is constrained by limited supplies of CO2. NEORI recommends state and federal incentives to encourage the capture of CO2 from industrial and power facilities, which otherwise would go into the atmosphere, for use in enhanced oil recovery. 
 
A proposed federal tax credit would quadruple U.S. oil production from EOR, to 400 million barrels a year, while reducing CO2 emissions by 4 billion tons over the next 40 years. The program would pay for itself within 10 years through increased federal revenues generated by boosting domestic oil production, with an estimated net return of $100 billion over 40 years. The incentive also would reduce the trade deficit by saving the United States about $610 billion in expenditures on imported oil over the same period.
 
NEORI Recommendations
NEORI News
NEORI Recommendations Release – February 28, 2012
NEORI Launch – July 17, 2011
Additional Resources