Captured Carbon Is Powering U.S. Oil

A Swiss company made headlines last week when it began operation of what it’s calling the first commercial carbon capture plant. Commercially viable carbon capture systems are something of a silver bullet for climate mitigation efforts, as they would give us a way to reduce atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas that’s driving surface temperatures up. But capturing that carbon is only half of that potential solution—the other half involves what you actually do with the carbon dioxide. Here in the United States, companies are using captured CO2 to help increase production yields in conventional oil wells. Reuters reports:

The drilling method harnesses the carbon dioxide produced during the extraction of oil or from power plants, and forces it back into the fields. That boosts the pressure underground and drives more oil to the surface. […]

[Enhanced oil recovery] could extend by decades the producing life of hundreds more wells, increasing oil supply which would be a drag on prices. To date, the technique has been employed only at conventional oilfields, rather than on shale deposits. Some firms are studying how to put the technique to work in shale drilling, too.

If ever there was a win-win, this would seem to be it. CO2-enabled enhanced oil recovery (EOR) throws a bone to environmentalists and oil boosters alike, and to-date here in the U.S. it’s only been used in conventional oil fields. As the technology matures, drillers will be able to deploy it in shale fields in the coming years and reap significant rewards for their efforts.

Greens’ first instinct will be to turn their noses up at this wedding of fossil fuel development and clean tech, but this is a symbiotic relationship that can benefit both industries. For carbon capture plants to scale up (and build on the momentum of last week’s announcement in Switzerland), they’ll need to show that they’re capable of turning a profit. If that captured carbon can be used to increase oil and gas output, industry will pay for it, and in so doing give valuable financial support to a moonshot eco-solution that has struggled to prove itself viable.

The shale boom has already lowered American emissions by making natural gas a cheaper option than coal. Its next green accolade could soon be its creation of a market for captured carbon.