Integrating Enhanced Oil Recovery and Carbon Capture and Storage: Farnsworth Field

The Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP) is one of seven large-scale demonstration projects sponsored by the US Department of Energy. The SWP has a goal of permanently sequestering more than 1 million t of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in an active enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) project in a mature waterflood in the Anadarko Basin. Goals of the project include optimizing the balance between EOR and storage, ensuring storage permanence, and developing best practices for carbon storage using man-made CO₂.

Introduction

The goal of the project is to inject at least 1 million t of CO₂ into an active oil field undergoing EOR over a 4- to 5-year period. All CO₂ used in the project is anthropogenic and would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere.