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Shell, BP May Reap 'Serious Profit' by Using CO2 in Oil Fields
2010-09-15 23:00:01.0 GMT
By Catherine Airlie
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc
stand to make "serious profit" by pumping carbon dioxide from
European power plants into North Sea oil fields, according to
Petroleum and Renewable Energy Company Ltd.
Putting carbon dioxide into old oil wells may yield profits
of as much as $40 a metric ton in the next decade, Stewart
Whiteley, managing director at the consultant known as Petrenel,
said today at a seminar at London's Geological Society.
"You can start making serious profits out of this,"
Whiteley said. "It's a matter of whoever gets there first."
Enhanced oil recovery involves pumping carbon dioxide into
underground reservoirs to extract more crude than would
otherwise be obtained through natural pressure. The process has
the advantage of extending the lifespan of an oil field, while
permanently burying the pollutant. Carbon capture and storage
has been touted as a way of slashing emissions of CO2, a
greenhouse gas blamed for climate change.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Ltd. and Denbury Resources
Inc., two pipeline operators in the U.S., are profiting on
transporting and storing CO2, Whiteley said.
BP, Europe's second-largest oil company after Shell,
shelved a plan to use its Miller field in the North Sea for CO2
storage in 2007 after the U.K. didn't provide the company with
tax incentives for the project.
Petrenel estimates it costs $7 to $20 to dispose of a
metric ton of carbon dioxide underground for storage in an
aquifer or depleted gas field. The CO2 could turn into an asset
in extracting more oil, he said.
The figures don't account for costs of capturing the CO2
from the source, such as power stations, just transporting and
storing the gas, he said.
For Related News and Information:
Carbon capture and storage stories: NI CARBCAPT <GO>
Emission market news NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Top energy, environment stories ETOP <GO>, GREEN <GO>
European power-markets home page EPWR <GO>
Climate-change news: NI CLIMATE <GO>
Editors: Mike Anderson, Stephen Cunningham.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Catherine Airlie in London at +44-20-7073-3308 or
cairlie@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
