National assessment of carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention resources - data release

In 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a probabilistic assessment of the volume of technically recoverable oil resources available if current carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technologies were applied in amenable oil reservoirs underlying the onshore and State waters area of the conterminous United States. The assessment also includes estimates of the magnitude of CO2 stored (retained) resulting from CO2-EOR activities. The USGS assessment team evaluated 3524 oil reservoirs that were miscible to injected CO2. The assessed reservoirs are located in 185 previously defined USGS plays in 33 petroleum provinces (or basins) of 7 national regions. All candidate reservoir data, except 12 reservoirs from the Appalachian Basin, were originally described in the proprietary Nehring Database of Significant Oil and Gas Fields. The USGS is unable to publish the proprietary names and descriptions of these individual reservoirs, but can provide estimates at the reservoir level. Reservoirs are identified by USGS play, province, and region. The CO2-EOR was modeled using CO2 Prophet software. The results presented are: the mean original oil-in-place, the recovery factor as a percentage, gross and net utilization factors of injected CO2 per barrel of oil recovered, percent retention of CO2 in the subsurface, oil recovered in millions of barrels (MMbbl), and CO2 retention in millions of metric tons (MT). The estimates of oil recovered, and CO2 retention include the mean and vary from the P5 percentile (5 percent likelihood that the volume is less), to the P50 percentile or median value, and to the P95 percentile. Results are reported to two significant digits.