Carbon capture and storage technology is the trapping of carbon dioxide from the exhaust of power plants that burn fossil fuels, followed by its sequestration underground in such a way that it cannot reenter the atmosphere. The amounts of CO2 proposed to be captured are simply enormous. So, what can we do with all that captured carbon? According to a study from Durham University in the United Kingdom, one of the best uses for all that captured CO2 is using it to recover more oil.
You read that right. The recommendation is to use CO2 to recover additional amounts of oil in the North Sea. The researchers project that over the next 20 years the UK could produce an additional 3 billion barrels of oil using captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. In other words, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology could be deployed to prevent millions of tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere, and the captured CO2 could then be used to produce more oil, the burning of which would lead to still more greenhouse gas emissions.
Although the idea sounds counterproductive—even crazy—to use caputured carbon dioxide to recover more carbon dioxide-producing petroleum, there is a certain logic in operation. Using the captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery is an approximately carbon neutral activity Roughly the same amount of CO2 is being put into the ground as is being taken out in the form of oil. A further benefit is that, for the United Kingdom, the additional oil produced in this way is domestic production. Every barrel of oil harvested through this enhanced oil recovery technique offsets a barrel that would otherwise come from non-domestic sources such as the Middle East. Finally, the additional supply of oil produced through carbon dioxide injection will provide downward pressure on international oil prices.
Time is of the essence as well. As long as the oil fields are active, the infrastructure to extract the oil is still in place. As production from these oil fields declines and the oil fields are eventually abandoned, the infrastructure will be removed and relocated, and going back will likely be prohibitively costly.
According to Professor Jon Gluyas, Professor of CCS & Geo-Energy, Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, the additional recovery of oil from fields under the North Sea can provide secure energy supplies for Britain for the next fifty years. The United Kingdom would be self sufficient in its energy production, and the taxes on the oil produced would bring in about 60 billion pounds (approximately $100 billion) to the UK Treasury.
