Oct 14, 2010 13:20 GMT  ·  By

A new study, funded by DONG Energy (UK) Ltd. and Ikon Science Ltd. and presented today at a conference on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in London, concluded that oil recovery in the North Sea, using CO2, could worth £150 billion ($ 240 billion) and become the next oil boom, but only if the current infrastructure is improved right away.

According to Durham University calculations, over the next 20 years, an extra three billion barrels of oil could be extracted from the UK oil field, using the CO2 technology; this would be enough to power, heat and transport the country without the help of any other energy form.

And for those who worry that this would cause more carbon dioxide emissions, the study explains that this is a carbon neutral project, as the amount of carbon being put back in the ground would equal that being taken out.

This oil recovery would mean lots of money for the UK, of course, but it would also allow Britain to develop its carbon storage techniques, thus advancing in its emissions reductions program.

The new figures potentially generated by this oil recovery were calculated by Jon Gluyas, a Professor in CCS & Geo-Energy, Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University.

He said that “time is running out to make best use of our precious remaining oil reserves because we’re losing vital infrastructure as the oil fields decline and are abandoned.

“Once the infrastructure is removed, we will never go back and the opportunity will be wasted, [so] we need to act now to develop the capture and transportation infrastructure to take the CO2 to where it is needed.

“This would be a world-leading industry using new technology to deliver carbon dioxide to the North Sea oil fields, [and] we must begin to do this as soon as possible before it becomes too expensive to do so,” he added.

“My figures are at the low end of expectations but they show that developing this technology could lead to a huge rejuvenation of the North Sea.

“The industrial CO2 output from Aberdeen to Hull is all you need to deliver this enhanced oil recovery.”

Old oil and gas fields, such as those in the North Sea, are considered to be likely stores for CO2, and experience from the USA shows that by using CO2-EOR, an extra four to twelve per cent of the oil in place can be extracted.

Professor Gluyas calculated the total oil in place in the UK fields and how much the UK would gain in barrels and revenue from existing reserves using the American model.

David Hanstock, a founding director of Progressive Energy and director of COOTS Ltd, which is developing an offshore CO2 transport and storage infrastructure in the North Sea, said that the UK has an important storage capacity potential for capturing carbon dioxide in North sea oil and gas fields.

“There is a unique opportunity to develop a new offshore industry using our considerable experience in offshore engineering.

“This would give us a technical lead on injecting and monitoring CO2 that we could then export to the wider world to establish the UK as a world leader in carbon capture and storage technology.”

Professor Gluyas added that this could “secure our energy supplies for the next fifty years.

“The extra 3 billion barrels of oil that could be produced by enhanced CO2 recovery would make us self sufficient and would add around £60bn in revenue to the Treasury.

“Priming the system now would mean we have 10-15 years to develop CO2 recycling and sufficient time to help us bridge to a future serviced by renewable energy,” he concluded.