Repsol fills old oil fields in the Mediterranian with CO2
Repsol, one of Europe's biggest oil companies, has decided to store half a million tons of CO2 under the Mediterranean Sea. The plan is to capture CO2 at its refinery in Tarragona, Spain, and move it 43 km through the pipeline that connects it to an old "Casablanca" oil platform.
This system will not only serve as a carbon capture project but will also help finish the extraction of crude from the old well, which is only producing 2,800 barrels per day.
The method Repsol will use involves capturing the CO2 before it comes out the chimneys, liquefying it and pushing it though the aforementioned pipeline. Once it reaches the offshore rig, it would be pushed 3,000 meters down. According to Repsol, the CO2 becomes stable in liquid form below 800 meters.
[Source: El País]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 10:07AM (3/18/2008)
We'll, next time we need to feed the "green" plants the Co2 the NEED, we'll know where to drill for it.
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rgseidl 10:55AM (3/18/2008)
Higher plants manage quite nicely with atmospheric CO2, though Dutch greenhouse farmers use small gas turbines to generate heat and electricity for lighting, then enrich the indoor atmosphere with the CO2 contained in the cooled flue gases.
Something similar would be possible with algae, but an oil company like Repsol wants to scrape as much oil out of the ground as possible first. If algaculture is technically and economically viable at industrial scales once this particular oil field is full, the CO2 capture & logistics equipment at the refinery can be repurposed.
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Tim 11:21AM (3/18/2008)
So, we're paying $Billions in tax dollars to the oil companies so they will "sequester" Co2, but they NEED to pump Co2 in their wells anyway in order to maximize oil yields to continue their RECORD PROFITS?
Somebody's getting screwed here and it must be the taxpayer AGAIN thanks to the well programmed foolish man made global warming leftists! Duh, it “feels” good so let’s go with that…
I can see the “Help Wanted” ad now:
Wealth Transfer Job! Progressives/Democratic-Socialists/Neo-Conservatives wanted! Others with common sense and intelligence need NOT apply.
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KarenRei 12:39PM (3/18/2008)
Yes, this isn't some benevolent project. Don't get me wrong -- CO2 injection is *very expensive*, and can easily cost billions. But the payoff is a lot more recoverable oil. You know all of those "spent" oilfields in the US? Depending on the estimate you look at, CO2 injection could give us anywhere between a dozen billion and several hundred billion additional barrels from our fields alone.
Personally, I think it's a win-win proposal -- certainly better way to get fuel than, say, corn ethanol -- so I'm not bothered by subsidies for the practice so long as they're only temporary in order to get the market confident enough about the process that they'll be willing to risk investing in it on their own. Remember, this is a new technology, and there's always a lot of market hesitation with new techs.
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Nick 12:35PM (3/18/2008)
What a great idea!!! We can artificially create the Lake Nyos effect in an ocean!! I just hope I'm not at sea or near the coast when it happens.
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Tim 12:43PM (3/18/2008)
Karen, the oil companies are RAPING us and you're helping!
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Cervus 1:46PM (3/18/2008)
Tim:
The current high oil prices are what happens when supply cannot meet demand. When there isn't enough slack in the system to account for disruptions in supply. It has nothing to do with the oil companies, since they only produce a small fraction of the world's oil. If you really want to put blame somewhere, about 75% of the remaining oil reserves are controlled by state oil companies. Not ExxonMobil, not Marathon, not Shell.
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KarenRei 1:55PM (3/18/2008)
"What a great idea!!! We can artificially create the Lake Nyos effect in an ocean!! "
The CO2 isn't going into the water; it's going into the strata deep below the water. No, it's not going to leak. How do we know? Because the same strata has trapped pressurized oil (and the gas that pressurized it) for millions of years.
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