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.

Weyburn-Midale Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: Cenovus Energy, Apache Canada, PTRC (Petroleum Technology Research Center)

Location: Weyburn Saskatchewan, Canada

Start Date: October 2000

Size: 3 Mt/yr: Over 30 Million tons injected since the project start

CO2 Source: Coal Gasification and Coal Power from the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, North Dakota (The CO2 is piped to Weyburn EOR site in Saskatchewan Canada)

Storage: The CO2 is piped via an onshore 315 pipeline for EOR in 2 carbonate fields. Cenovus Energy owned Weyburn field (6,500 t/day) and Apache owned Midale field (1,200 t/day)

Motivation/Economics:

To increase oil production and CO2 EOR research. The 8 year project is estimated to cost $80 million. The U.S. and Canadian governments have jointly pledged an additional $5.2 million in new funding in July 2010. The DOE providing $3 million and the Canadian Government is provided $2.2 million.

Comments:

CO2 injected at Weyburn and Midale totals 3 million tonnes per year (about 8000 tonnes per day from Dakota Gasification, and another up to 2000 from Boundary Dam)

After alleged leakage from the Weburn site in January 2011, Cenovus, the company that operates the Weyburn field, and the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geologic Storage of CO2 (IPAC-CO2) both initiated studies to investigate this complaint. It was found that the 'leaking' CO2 was not the injected CO2, rather it was naturally occurring biogenic CO2, originating from biological processes in the soil. The report published in 2012 found no potential CO2 pathways from pipelines or other infrastructure.

The CO2 injection is in 2 sites, Cenovus Energy owned Weyburn field and Apache owned Midale field. The EOR has increased production from Cenovus's Weyburn field by 16,000-28,000 barrels a day and by 2,300 to 5,800 barrels a day for Apache's Midale field.

The EOR is expected to enable an additional 130 million barrels of oil to be produced and extend the life of Weyburn field by 25 years. Ultimately 20 million tons of CO2 are expected to be stored. Current cost $20/Ton of CO2. A 330 km (205 miles) long pipeline transfers the CO2 from Beulah, North Dakota, to the Weyburn field in Saskatchewan, Canada. There are 2 projects in tandem at the Weyburn field: The commercial EOR project run by EnCana; and the research project looking at the potential to store CO2, run by the PTRC. The research project was formally known as the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage project.

Project Link: IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Storage & Monitoring Project

Other Sources and Press Releases:

Investigations find no evidence of leaks at Weyburn ( January 2012)
Petroleum Technology Research Center release Weyburn Findings (January 2011)
Weyburn alleged leaking CO2 at surface questioned (January 2011)
US and Canada pledge $5.2 million for Weyburn project (July 2010)
Canadian Geographic Weyburn Study
Press release of successful 5 MT of CO2 sequestered (November 2005)