Kyle Haustveit, assistant secretary for the hydrocarbons and geothermal energy office at the U.S. Department of Energy, urged attendees at the annual. CO2 Conference to continue their work. “Your work keeps the U.S. strong and prosperous and raises standards of living,” he said during his virtual appearance at the conference.
He urged attendees to continue collaborating and navigating challenges to find solutions to carbon capture and storage issues and bring their expertise before policymakers.
“Push boundaries together there in the Permian Basin,” he said.
Chuck McConnell, executive director at the University of Houston Center for Carbon Management in Energy, sees this as a pivotal moment for carbon capture and its use in enhancing oil recovery.
“The interest in EOR has never been stronger than it is today. This conference bears that out — it’s an exciting time. There will be business opportunities in West Texas and other parts of the world,” he said.
Utilizing captured CO2 to improve oil production has a business purpose as well as an environmental purpose. “Without both, you don’t have a winning proposition,” he said.
That carbon dioxide should be utilized, not buried or stored, and using it to increase oil production is the most obvious, productive solution, McConnell said.
For those concerned about the environmental footprint, he pointed out that “oil produced from CCUS-EOR is the lowest carbon intensity oil produced in the world. It will be better oil than anywhere else from an environmental standpoint. EOR will advance American security and affordability.”
For the Permian Basin, he said CCUS-EOR will help the long-term viability of the region, allowing recovery of oil that would otherwise be stranded. It will also help producers as they explore new benches, deeper benches and areas along the edges of the core.
“People are recognizing fossil fuels — oil and natural gas — are part of the future. We’re not denying it, we’re embracing it,” McConnell said. “We are not in an energy transition, we are in an energy transformation.”
