The goal of the project is to determine the economic and technical feasibility of using CO₂ miscible flooding to recover residual and bypassed oil in a Lansing Kansas City formation oilfield in central Kansas.

Tertiary Oil Recovery Project (TORP), University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence, KS
Kinder-Morgan CO₂, Houston, TX
Murfin Drilling Company, Wichita, KS 
White Eagle Resources, Lafayette, CO
John O. Farmer, Inc, Russell, KS
ICM, Inc., Colwich, KS 
Kansas Dept. of Commerce, Topeka, KS

The project involves injecting CO₂ from an ethanol plant into the Lansing Kansas City C formation in the Hall Gurney field near Russell, KS. The oil reservoir is a thin, oomoldic carbonate zone located at a depth of about 2900 feet. The reservoir zone was water flooded previously and abandoned in about 1990. The pilot consists of one CO₂ injection well and two production wells on about 10 acre spacing. Water injection wells were used to confine the CO₂ to the pilot area.

The project was carried out in three phases: Phase 1 – Reservoir characterization and economic analysis, Phase 2 – Implementation, and Phase 3 – Post CO₂ flood monitoring. Phase 1 began on March 8, 2000, and was completed on March 6, 2004. Phase 2 began on March 7, 2004, and was completed on December 31, 2008. Phase 3 began on January 1, 2009, and will be completed on March 7, 2010.

Continuous injection of CO₂ into the Lansing Kansas City C formation in Hall Gurney field near Russell, KS began on December 2, 2003. CO₂ was trucked from the ethanol plant operated by U.S. Energy Partners by EPCO, where it was unloaded into a portable storage tank on the lease. CO₂ was injected as a compressed fluid using an injection skid provided by FLOCO₂. By the end of June 2005, about 16.92 million pounds of CO₂ had been injected. The average rate of CO₂ injection from January through June 2005 was about 245 MCFD. CO₂ injection was converted to water injection on June 21, 2005, in an effort to reduce operating costs to a breakeven level with the expectation that sufficient CO₂ was injected to displace the oil bank to the production wells by water injection. The amount of CO₂ produced was about 5 percent of the injected CO₂.

Oil production from the pilot lease (7778 bbl) was less than anticipated and was slower to build than expected. In August 2006, wells on the adjacent leases (Colliver A and Graham) north of the pilot area were opened in the C zone and have produced substantial amounts of oil that has been attributed to the CO₂ flood. As of May 31, 2009, about 16,193 bbl of incremental oil were estimated to have been produced from these wells since the beginning of the CO₂ project. Incremental oil production from the CO₂ pilot area and the Graham and Colliver A leases attributed to CO₂ injection was about 23,971 bbl which is equivalent to a gross CO₂ ratio of 5.7 MCF/bbl.

The CO₂ miscible flood demonstration project represents the first use of CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in Kansas. The Hall-Gurney field, the largest Lansing Kansas City oilfield in Kansas, is one of several CO₂ flood candidate fields in central Kansas. There are no miscible CO₂ floods in Kansas, due primarily to the distance from CO₂ sources.

The project is a unique, scalable model for linked energy systems. Waste heat from a municipal 15-megawatt gas-fired turbine electric power generator provides heat inputs for a 25 million gallon per year ethanol plant. CO₂, a fermentation byproduct of ethanol production, will be utilized by the CO₂ miscible flood project in the Hall-Gurney field. The full CO₂ stream from the ethanol plant could supply a small oilfield capable of producing five million barrels of oil and sequestering 1.5 million tons of CO₂ over 20 years.

CO₂ flooding demonstrated in this project has the potential to prevent up to 6,000 mature oilfields in Kansas from being abandoned and result in the recovery of more than 250-500 million barrels of incremental oil, equivalent to 5-10 years of additional Kansas production. The project’s original objective, to demonstrate to Kansas independents the feasibility of CO₂ flooding and to find a viable supply of CO₂, is being met with a joint industry venture that could also benefit agriculture, ethanol production, and electric power generation, as well as independent oil producers.

Phase 1: Reservoir characterization and economic analysis(March 8, 2000-March 6, 2004)
Phase 1 involved acquisition and consolidation of data into a web-based accessible database, and geologic, petro physical, and engineering reservoir characterization at the proposed demonstration site to understand the reservoir system and economics of the project. Descriptive and numerical models of the reservoir were developed and used in a reservoir simulator to predict oil recovery and the optimum location for a new injector well. Evaluation of the economics of CO₂ flooding was based on improved reservoir characterization, advanced flow simulation, and engineering analyses. Test wells were remediated and the pilot area was repressurized with water injection to evaluate inter-well properties. CO₂ injectivity tests were conducted to verify the injection rate into CO₂ I-1 and evaluate premature breakthrough.

Phase 2: Implement CO₂ Flood (March 7,2004-December 31, 2008)
Phase 2 activities covered full-scale implementation of the CO₂ pilot flood. The pilot carbon dioxide miscible flood was initiated in the Lansing Kansas City C formation in the Hall Gurney Field, Russell County, Kansas. The reservoir zone is an oomoldic carbonate located at a depth of about 2900 feet. The pilot consists of one carbon dioxide injection well and three production wells. Continuous carbon dioxide injection began on December 2, 2003. Field personnel quickly picked up operating experience with carbon dioxide injection and management of production wells, and gained sufficient experience to manage a field-scale flood. Operating costs were assessed for both injection of carbon dioxide and production of oil, water, and carbon dioxide. Minimum miscibility pressure (p>1250 psi) was maintained in the pilot area with the assistance of water confinement wells. The switch to water injection after injection of 16.19MM lb (138.05MMCF) of CO₂ was trouble-free. About 95% of injected CO₂ remained in the reservoir as of June 2005. Oil displacement continued as the water displaced CO₂into new areas of the reservoir. By the end of June 2005, 16.19 MM lb of carbon dioxide was injected into the pilot area. Injection was converted to water on June 21, 2005, to reduce operating costs to a breakeven level with the expectation that sufficient carbon dioxide was injected to displace the oil bank to the production wells by water injection. In August 2006, it was discovered that a production increase from the Colliver A Lease located north of the pilot lease was in response to CO₂ injection in the pilot lease. There is a northwesterly directional permeability trend toward the pilot region. The pilot area is more heterogeneous than represented in the reservoir model. The amount of reservoir heterogeneity was not predictable from available reservoir data and it was not possible to predict with certainty which wells would produce incremental oil. As of May 31, 2009, incremental oil produced from the pilot lease and leases north of the pilot lease was 23,971 bbl or 5.7 MMF/bbl. A preliminary geologic model was developed that is consistent with the heterogeneity determined from analysis of production data.

Phase 3: Post CO₂ Flood Monitoring-(January 1, 2009-March 7, 2010)
By March 7, 2010, 8,736 bbl of oil were produced from the pilot. Production from wells to the northwest of the pilot region indicates that oil displaced from carbon dioxide injection was produced from Colliver A7, Colliver A3, Colliver A14 and Graham A4 located on adjacent leases. About 19,166 bbl of incremental oil were estimated to have been produced from these wells as of March 7, 2010. There is evidence of a directional permeability trend toward the northwest through the pilot region. The majority of the injected carbon dioxide remains in the pilot region, which has been maintained at a pressure at or above the minimum miscibility pressure. Estimated oil recovery attributed to the CO₂ flood is 27,902 bbl, which is equivalent to a gross CO₂ utilization of 4.8 MCF/bbl. The pilot project is not economic.

Phase 3 activities involve monitoring and evaluating the CO₂ pilot flood and preparing a final report. The report has been submitted and accepted by DOE.

(July 2010) 
The project was completed on March 7, 2010. The final report is available below under "Publications".

$1,760,000

$2,820,000 (62 percent of total)

NETL – Chandra Nautiyal (chandra.nautiyal@netl.doe.gov or 281-494-2488)
University of Kansas - Paul Willhite (willhite@ukans.edu or 785-864-2906)

Publications

Final Project Report [PDF-7.99MB] March, 2000 - March, 2010

Other reports and presentations are available at http:/www.torp.ku.edu [external site].

Presentations:
The Russell Kansas CO₂ Pilot - An Operator's Perspective by Tom Nichols, Murfin Drilling Company, for Mid-year KIOGA, April 21, 2005

Field Demonstration of CO₂ Miscible Flooding in the Lansing-Kansas City Formation, Central Kansas by G. Paul Willhite to 16th Oil Recovery Conference, Wichita, KS, April 7, 2005

An Overview of the Carbon Dioxide Pilot Test in the Hall Gurney Field in Russell County, Kansas by G. Paul Willhite, Tertiary Oil Recovery Project, University of Kansas, December 2004

Reducing Risk in the Implementation of the CO₂ Pilot Test in the Hall-Gurney Russell County, Kansas by G. Paul Willhite, Tertiary Oil Recovery Project, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, March 13, 2003

Overview - Carbon Dioxide Pilot Test in the Hall Gurney Field in Russell County, Kansas by G. Paul Willhite, Tertiary Oil Recovery Project, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, March 12, 2003

Field Demonstration of CO₂ Miscible Flooding in the L-KC, Central Kansas Alan P. Byrnes to the Department of Energy, Tulsa, Oklahoma April 13, 2001

Update: Field Demonstration of CO₂ Miscible Flooding in the L-KC, Central Kansas Martin K. Dubois to the Kansas Geological Society, Wichita, Kansas March 1, 2001

Field Demonstration of Carbon Dioxide Miscible Flooding in the Lansing-Kansas City Formation, Central Kansas Richard Pancake & Alan P. Byrnes to the Sixth Annual CO₂ Conference, Midland, Texas December 6, 2000