The workshop resulted in a world-class research consortium, comprised of public and private-sector research providers from Canada, the United States and Europe.  The objective of the consortium is to study the Weyburn Reservoir and enhance our knowledge and understanding of EOR and C02 sequestration, and develop monitoring and analytic methodologies with international benefits.

This consortium combines two leading groups of scientists and researchers-those with an intimate knowledge of the Williston Basin, and those with experience working on the Sleipner C02 injection project in Norway.  Additional proposals for research in areas that could potentially augment the program will be reviewed to determine their complementarity.

A Unique Opportunity and a Global Potential
Although the enhanced oil recovery potential of the Weyburn project is sufficient to draw international attention on its own, the opportunity offered to the international community to demonstrate the effectiveness of greenhouse gas sequestration presents a tantalizing prospect.  Sequestering C02 in exhausted oil pools, or even in deep, saline aquifers, appeals to players in both the energy and environment domains.  It offers the prospect of both continued energy supply using conventional (fossil fuel) sources and respect for the potential risks associated with climate change.

Only one field trial of a process that seeks solely to sequester C02 geologically is currently underway - at Sleipner in the North Sea, where C02 is extracted from natural gas and injected through a single well into a formation that has very different characteristics from the Weyburn Unit.  The monitoring of the Weyburn Unit will be the single-most useful case study for establishing the effectiveness of greenhouse gas sequestration through EOR.  It would establish a firm basis for assessing the costs of additional sequestration in the Weyburn field, the many similar oil reservoirs of the Williston Basin and worldwide. It will establish the baseline against which all future projects will be compared.

The application of C02 EOR is a proven technology.  While there are already commercial applications of C02 EOR in the US, the Weyburn C02 Monitoring Project is unique due to the existence of a complete historical database.  The province of Saskatchewan required, at an early stage in the development of the oil industry, that all oilfield information be submitted for public record.  Hence, there is a nearly complete record in the public domain of all geophysical logs, cores and cutting samples, as well as production and injection information.

As a result, the Weyburn field may already be the world's best-documented target site for EOR by C02 injection.  Furthermore, the field is in an easily accessible location.  As such, any monitoring studies on this field can be conducted at a lower cost and with greater scientific certainty than at most other locations.
 
Project Benefits
The Weyburn C02 Monitoring Project will provide substantial benefits to at least three sectors of the Canadian and world technical communities; the environmental and regulatory agencies, the petroleum industry, and the research community.

The first benefit of this project will be the objective evaluation, and successful large-scale demonstration, of the geological sequestration of C02 during EOR operations.  If, as expected, the C02 sequestered into Williston Basin formations is securely stored, then vital information needed to determine both the associated costs and the long-term storage capacity for this form of C02 disposal will be provided.

While commercial decisions will inevitably be made on the specific economic attributes of each individual project, the Weyburn project will improve our understanding of the processes by which C02 is sequestered. The information gathered will be easily transferable to reservoirs in many parts of the world. In turn, the information will allow the entire industry to assess the costs and effectiveness of this and other processes for sequestration. 

If sequestration of C02 is assigned an economic value - either through emissions trading or other market-based mechanisms - additional marginally economic pools can be developed to take advantage of the combined revenue streams of the sequestered C02 and the recovered oil.

It has been estimated that, on a full life-cycle basis, the oil produced at Weyburn by C02 EOR will release only two-thirds as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere compared to oil produced conventionally.  This level of performance makes sequestration through EOR very attractive for meeting the targets set by many national governments for the reduction/limitation of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Project Sponsorship
The Weyburn C02 Monitoring Project is supported by PanCanadian Resources, a prominent Canadian petroleum producer that operates the Weyburn field, by the Dakota Gasification Company, the supplier of C02 to the Weyburn field site, and by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC), which will coordinate the efforts of the international research team.

Financial support from Canadian public sources is being requested.  Private companies and other governments and public institutions are also being approached for sponsorship.  Through PanCanadian Resources' own initiative, commitments to financially and materially support the initial phase of a remote sensing study have already been secured from an international group of 23 companies and organizations.

Research Plan
This project will require a substantial, well-coordinated effort involving a diverse range of highly specialized scientific and technical services.  The elements needed to achieve the overall success of the Weyburn C02 Monitoring Project are as follows:

• Field-production and analytical data,
• Comprehensive geological modelling,
• The assessment of geochemical impacts on the formation's C02 storage integrity and capacity,
• Monitoring of the movement of various fluids within the reservoir,
• Fluid and phase behavior characterization to establish the mechanisms that govern the distribution and displacement of the C02-rich fluids,
• Applied science and research for the development of better sequestration monitoring tools and techniques.

Proposed Project Organization
The Weyburn C02 Monitoring Project will be conducted under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA), who will support the worldwide marketing of the project through its Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme.  The IEA will also assist in the administration through development of legal agreements, on the basis of experience gained during development of the internationally supported Sleipner C02 injection project in the North Sea.

The PTRC will act as the coordinator for research on the Weyburn C02 Monitoring Project due to its mandate as a research and development organization, and its ability to collaborate with a number of research facilities.  Led by the PTRC, a team of the best international researchers will be coordinated for each element of the project.

Project Timelines
While C02 injection is slated to commence in October 2000, collection of baseline research is scheduled to begin May 2000.  For the succeeding four years, data will be collected, analysed and interpreted by the research team. Final results will be available in late 2003 and into 2004. Regular progress meetings will be conducted for the project sponsors.