Assessment of the Potential for Carbon Dioxide Sequestration with Enhanced Oil Recovery in Nevada

Abstract:

This report follows the preliminary assessment of the potential for carbon dioxide sequestration in geological settings in Nevada (Price and others, 2005) by compiling data on the 15 oil fields that have had historical production. Critical factors in assessing the potential for enhanced oil recovery as a means of carbon dioxide sequestration in Nevada include depth, temperature, and cumulative production. Most Nevada oil reservoirs are considerably hotter than ideal conditions for maintaining a dense CO2 phase underground. Furthermore, none of the Nevada oil fields is large enough to accommodate all the CO2 from a large coal-fired power plant. The cumulative volume of oil and associated water production from all Nevada oil fields is about two orders of magnitude less than what would be needed to sequester a significant amount of CO2 from a power plant. Therefore, there is not much potential in Nevada for CO2 sequestration through enhanced oil recovery.

Purpose:

To aid in the evaluation of Nevada oil fields as potential targets for CO2 EOR, we researched available literature on 15 commercially productive oilfields in Nevada for information pertinent to the suitability of these oil fields for sequestration of CO2. Nevada’s commercially productive oil fields are Bacon Flat, Currant, Duckwater Creek, Eagle Springs, Ghost Ranch, Grant Canyon, Kate Spring, Sand Dune, Sans Spring, and Trap Spring in Railroad Valley, Nye County; Blackburn, North Willow Creek, Three Bar, and Tomera Ranch in Pine Valley, Eureka County; and Deadman Creek in Toano Draw, Elko County.  Additional fields have been explored and identified within Nevada, but as yet, none of these has had significant commercial production of petroleum, so they were not included in this compilation. Nearly all Nevada oil production has come from fields in Railroad Valley (89.27%) and Pine Valley (10.73%; Davis, 2007).

Because Nevada’s 15 commercially producing oil fields are either one-reservoir fields or consist of communicating reservoirs, the field and reservoir level data are essentially the same and are combined on a single data spreadsheet for the fifteen oil fields. The data presented in Table 1 are included in a geographic information system (GIS) coverage which accompanies the electronic version of this open-file report. Table 2 of that report is an annotated list of the data field labels and a description of the data contained in each of the fields on Table 1. Field locations in Table 1 and on Figure 1 are based on the point locations of the discovery wells for each field as shown on the petroleum data map of Garside and Hess (2007). The oil field GIS coverage was generated in a shape file format, in UTM zone 11 projection, North American Datum (NAD) 1927. The GIS coverage that accompanies the map of Garside and Hess (2007), available at http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/dox.htm, includes locations of all oil and gas exploration and production wells in the state.

Supplemental_Information:

Field locations are based on the point locations of the discovery wells for each field as shown on the petroleum data map of Garside and Hess (2007). The oil field GIS coverage was generated in a shape file format, in UTM zone 11 projection, North American Datum (NAD) 1927.

Currentness_Reference:

publication date

Attribute_Accuracy_Report:

For indexing and presentation purposes at 1:1,000,000 scale or smaller.

Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:

OILFIELDNA 	Name of the oil field
DISCO_WELL 	Name of the discovery well for the oil field
PERMIT 	Nevada permit number for the discovery well for the oil field
API 	API number of the discovery well for the oil field
LOCATION 	General location of the oil field
COUNTY 	County in which the oil field is located
T	Township in which the oil field is located
R	Range in which the oil field is located
S	Section(s) in which the oil field is located
QTRSEC 	Quarter section in which the discovery well for the oil field is located
DEPTHTOTOP 	Depth to top of the oilfield in the discovery well for the oil field
PRODDEPTH 	Range of depth of the producing zone in the discovery well for the oil field
AVDEPTHPRO 	Average depth of the production zone in all producing wells for the oil field
F14  Average depth of the production zone in all producing wells for the oil field, in Meters
CUMPROD2006 	Cumulative production of the oil field through 2006 (in barrels)  
ZONESTATUS06 	Zone status of all wells in the oil field as of the end of 2006: currently producing, shut-in, or abandoned (P&A)
NUMPRODWEL 	Number of producing wells in the oil field at the end of 2006
NUMINACTWE 	Number of inactive wells in the oil field at the end of 2006
DEPTHFRESH	Depth to base of fresh water in oil field wells (not known) 
HOSTROCK	Host rock (reservoir) ages, name of formations, and rock types for oil fields 
AVEUNITTHI	Average thickness of reservoir rock units in producing wells for each field (this may not be the average potential thickness of reservoir rocks in the surrounding area.)
FIELDAREA	Field area as reported in or inferred from literature.  A minimum value of 40 acres was used for small fields with no area reported.  
POROSITY	Porosity of reservoir rocks
PERMEABILI	Permeability of reservoir rocks
INITPRE 	Initial pressure at TD in discovery well
INITIALTEM 	Initial temperature at TD in discovery well
FMSALINITY 	Formation water salinity
SEALTYPE 	Type of seal for reservoir 
SEALTHICK 	Seal thickness if known or thickness of formation that acts as the seal to the reservoir
TRAPTYPE 	Type of trap; structural, stratigraphic, lithologic, other
STIMULATIO 	Stimulation, history of secondary and tertiary recovery efforts
LOGS 	Logs available for the discovery hole in each oil field
SAMPLES 	Samples available for discovery hole in each oil field
LOGLOC 	Location of logs and samples for discovery hole and other producing wells of the oil field
RESFLUID 	Reservoir fluid (oil, gas, water)
FRACINTENS 	Intensity or presence of fracturing of reservoir rock
REF1 	Main reference, number 1
REF2	Main reference, number 2
REF3 	Main reference, numbers 3+
OPERATOR 	Current or most recent operator for the oilfield
APROX_UTMN 	Approximate UTM northing of the discovery well for the oilfield, Zone 11, NAD 1927
APROX_UTME	Approximate UTM easting of the discovery well for the oilfield, Zone 11, NAD 1927
H2OCUMPROD	Cumulative water production of the oil field through 2006

Ordering_Instructions:

Web download of OF07-7 in a Zip compressed format from http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/dox.htm