U of S CO2 Lab Gets $300,000 Boost from Western Economic Diversification Canada

Posted January 18, 2005


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 18
2005-01-05-ENG

U of S CO2 Lab Gets $300,000 Boost from
Western Economic Diversification Canada

A University of Saskatchewan engineering project to study carbon dioxide
(CO2) storage in oil and gas reservoirs was awarded $300,000 from Western
Economic Diversification Canada today, part of more than $6.75 million
announced in Regina by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale for a range of
projects and organizations across the province.

U of S assistant professor in geological engineering Chris Hawkes leads the
team that will design and build the new equipment, which could help meet the
challenge of reducing the amount of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

"The potential for geological storage is huge," Hawkes says. "Our lab will
help us understand how CO2 behaves in these reservoirs, both for enhanced
oil recovery and to find out and whether it will stay put once it's in
there."

Geological storage is one of a group of technologies called sequestration
which are intended to help reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The equipment, known as a fracture-flow physical model, will be used to
understand how CO2 behaves in fractured oil reservoirs. These rock
formations have held oil, water and natural gas for millions of years, like
liquid in an enormous sponge.

For many years, oil companies have injected fluids such as water, steam or
CO2 into the reservoirs in a process called "flooding." These fluids
displace the oil and lower its viscosity, helping to push it toward recovery
wells where it is brought to the surface. Viscosity refers to how easily a
liquid flows. For example, water generally has a lower viscosity than oil.

Each reservoir has its own characteristics, potentially including natural
fractures in the reservoir itself and in the rock layers above it, fractures
introduced to stimulate recovery during the oil extraction process, and of
course wells bored into the formations both vertically and horizontally.

For the oil industry, the lab may provide answers on how CO2 interacts with
and pushes the oil. For example, if the CO2 simply follows the fractures, it
might flow directly from injection wells to production wells without
enhancing oil recovery.

For those hoping to bury at least some of the CO2 problem underground, the
question is similar - more displaced oil means more room for greenhouse gas
- but it is important that the gas stay there after all the well holes have
been plugged with cement.

The U of S project is linked to the Weyburn CO2 Monitoring and Storage
project, launched in the summer of 2000. Energy company Encana had begun
using CO2 flooding to enhance oil recovery, and researchers seized the
opportunity to work with the company to use the oilfield as a test location
for greenhouse gas research. The project, coordinated through the Petroleum
Technology Research Centre in Regina, includes researchers from the U of S,
University of Regina, Saskatchewan Research Council and the provincial
government, along with researchers from elsewhere in Canada, the United
States and Europe.

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have been rising since the Industrial
Revolution when humans began using fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural
gas in earnest. The federal government estimates that each Canadian is
responsible for the release of about five tonnes of carbon per year, about
half of which comes from driving automobiles.

Funding for the project will be provided through the Canada Saskatchewan
Western Economic Partnership Agreement.

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For more information, contact:

Chris Hawkes
Civil and Geological Engineering
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5753

Michael Robin
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research