As of September 30, 2016, the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies program at MIT has closed. The website is being kept online as a reference but will not be updated.

Val Verde Fact Sheet: Commercial EOR using Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide

Company/Alliance: Blue Source and various other companies

Location: Texas, USA

Start Date: Val Verde pipeline was completed in 1998

Size: 1.3 Mt/yr

CO2 Source: Natural gas processing from five facilities including Mitchell, Gray Ranch, Puckett, Pikes Peak and Terrell. However some of these may stop operating which would affect the total volume of CO2 captured.

Transportation: 132 km onshore Val Verde and CRC pipeline to McCamey, Texas, where it connects with the Canyon Reef Carriers pipeline.

Oil Field EOR Storage Site: Sharon Ridge oil field. Secondary sinks are the SACROC, Cogdell and Reinecke floods.

Injection Depth: Producing intervals in the Sharon Ridge Oil field are the Glorietta at about a 2,300-ft depth and the Clearfork at about a 3,100-ft depth

Reservoir Type: Carbonate

Comments:

The total initial capital cost of the project was $17.6 million. As recently as 2007, additional incremental investments, totaling to $10 million, have been made to expand the pipeline system.

Through the Val Verde project, Blue Source have marketed and sold 2 million Verified Emission Reductions (VERs), the revenue stream of which is a significant factor in calculating future investments.

EOR started in Sharon Ridge oil field in 1972. The Sharon Ridge oil field is located in the Texas Permian Oil basin. As the Permian Oil fields have matured the market and scale of CO2-EOR has increased as is seen at Sharon Ridge oil field.

Project Link: Blue Source Case Study Val Verde CO2 Pipeline

Other Sources and Press Releases:
The Future of CO2 (July 2012)
Val Verde CO2 Pipeline Completes Construction and Begins Operations (September 1998)