When Denbury Resources begins working formerly drilled oil fields, they give them an injection to get the oil flowing again.
The miracle drug is carbon dioxide.
“We use CO2 to bring the oil from the ground,” said Billy Biggers, operations manager for Denbury’s activities in the McComb area.
Biggers told McComb Lions on Tuesday that Denbury gets its CO2 from its own natural source at the Jackson Dome, located near Jackson.
He said the dome, which lies in the area of past volcanic activity, was discovered during the 1970s. It is the only known CO2 source of its kind in the United States east of the Mississippi River, according to the company’s Web site.
The CO2 is moved to Denbury’s work sites through pipelines starting at the Jackson Dome and branching out to serve each field where the company has wells.
Biggers said Denbury is building a $750 million, 320-mile pipeline to move CO2 from its existing pipeline that ends near Donaldsonville, La., to the company’s Hastings Field in Texas, south of Houston. The pipeline is expected to be completed in 2010.
Biggers said the process of regenerating a well involves injecting CO2 in a dense phase into the ground to the oil reservoirs to release the oil and get the field back into production.
“The CO2 molecules bind with the oil to release the surface friction in the ground and bring the oil up,” he said.
“The process brings dead oil fields to life,” Biggers said. “The McComb field was plugged in the late 1960s. It’s coming back to life. It’s on it’s way up.”
Biggers said the method Denbury uses is called a tertiary — or third phase — process to get oil out of the ground.
The first phase, drilling, gets about 20 percent of the oil in the field, he said. A secondary phase process can get another 18 percent from the field, Biggers said.
The tertiary process using CO2, gets another 17 percent, he said.
He said Denbury is working fields in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, including the Little Creek, Mallalieu, McComb, and Brookhaven Fields locally.
The Hastings Field, which was recently added, is scheduled for completion in 2010.
But the problem with CO2 process is the availability of natural CO2. The supply is small, Biggers said.
He said the Denbury is in the process of buying CO2 emissions manufactured by plants and power stations as a secondary CO2 source for the company’s process.
Recycling the CO2 accomplishes two purpose — it helps the country get oil and prevents the CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere, Biggers said.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” Biggers said. “We are able to get the oil out of the ground, and the CO2 stays in the ground.”
