scholarly journals Assessment of environmental problems associated with increased enhanced oil recovery in the United States: 1980-2000

1983 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Kaplan ◽  
M. Garrell ◽  
B. Royce ◽  
E.F. Riedel ◽  
J. Sathaye
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Problems

Enhanced Oil-recovery and Its Environmental and Economic Implications in the United States

1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Argyle Campbell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chemical Processes ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Thermal Processes ◽  
Microbiological Processes ◽  
The Earth

This survey has described the foreseeable environmental and economic impacts of enhanced oil-recovery (EOR) on U.S. oil production between 1980 and 2000. It has indicated that EOR production may be expected to rise from the approximately 4% of total U.S. oil production in 1980, to the projected approximations of 10.5% in 1985, 18.5% in 1990, 23% in 1995, and perhaps 30% in 2000. These percentages are substantial, particularly as this form of oil production has been, up until recently, quite limited. Many of the processes are still in the laboratory stage of development—particularly chemical and microbiological processes. With continued laboratory experimentation and field research, it is possible that the percentages could be even greater than the above suggestions as we reach into the 21st Century.The potential for EOR is very considerable and probably great, as it could involve some two-thirds of all the oil already identified in the United States and assumed to be unrecoverable by primary or secondary means. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has given important incentives to the EOR industry to make such increased production worth while through raising prices to compensate for the cost of equipment, and deducting expenditure on such equipment from a new ‘Windfall Profit Tax’.Along with EOR's economic potential, there are two major ecological dangers: air pollution through thermal processes, and ground-water pollution through chemical processes. It is essential to the well-being of the United States that clean air standards be adhered to, and that the equipment necessary to purify the air (particularly in California) be available and operate to reduce emissions.A great deal more research needs to be undertaken towards developing safeguards to ensure that drinkingwater is not contaminated by dangerous chemicals which may be used in ‘chemical flooding’ of depleted oil-wells. Many of these chemicals have merely ‘come out of the laboratory’ and are sold by chemical companies without sufficient field-testing. How far these chemicals could travel underground must still be determined. It is also important to ensure that carbon dioxide, fed into a geological formation, can be recaptured and re-injected without escaping into the atmosphere, where there is the potential danger of a global ‘greenhouse effect’ upon the world's temperature. Finally, it is important to safeguard the Earth against microbes which could be injected into its geological strata without sufficient knowledge of their impact on the ecology of the Earth. Thus, much environmental research will be called for with these new methods of producing oil for Man's use.This study has reviewed the four major methods of EOR that are currently being utilized or proposed— thermal processes, miscible and semi-miscible processes, chemical processes, and microbiological processes, and found that they could all have ongoing possibilities.Given appropriate environmental safeguards, EOR should become a major force in the production of energy for the United States over the next 20 years, and it seems reasonable to expect that much the same could apply to other parts of the world. However, it is important that safeguarding the environment should guide the DOE in terms of its incentive programmes for specific processes.

scholarly journals A Database and Probabilistic Assessment Methodology for Carbon Dioxide-enhanced Oil Recovery and Associated Carbon Dioxide Retention in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 7055-7059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Warwick ◽  
Mahendra K. Verma ◽  
Emil D. Attanasi ◽  
Ricardo A. Olea ◽  
Madalyn S. Blondes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Probabilistic Assessment ◽  
Assessment Methodology

scholarly journals Abnehmende Kooperation in der Umweltpolitik trotz zunehmender wirtschaftlicher Integration : das kanadisch-amerikanische Verhältnis im Umweltbereich

1992 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-120
Author(s):  
A. Gurtner-Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Canadian Experience ◽  
Political Response ◽  
Trading Partners

Abstract. Over the last decades, Canada and Switzerland, countries with "small" economies, when compared with their neighbours, have experienced increasing economic Integration with their main trading partners, the United States and the European Community (EC) respectively. Using a political-economic approach, this article analyzes the effects of growmg Integration for management of transboundary, environmental problems in North America. As well, in view of the Canadian experience, possible implications for Switzerland in its future relationship to the EC are addressed. In the past the Canadian-American debate over transboundary environmental problems has centered around questions of territory. Despite increasing economic Integration, the dominant reaction to ecological interdependence has been reliance on national policies. In accordance with the American, economic leadership in the continental System, the kind of political response to transboundary, environmental Problems is mainly dictated by the importance of the problem in the United States. The Great Lakes are an area of mutual concern and, therefore, an example for limited, environmental Cooperation and the adoption of an environmental advanced Position. In the U. S., the political response to acid rain was reactive and delayed, since only certain regions were concerned. Despite Canadian domestic and international efforts during the 1980s, until recently no significant progress has been made in developing effective measures to abate air emissions. The conclusion of the Canada-U. S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 1988 did not change the very nature of the mutual environmental relationship. However, in the corollary to the FTA serious threats to the environment can be identified. Liberalized trade and restrained State Intervention foster the accelerated exploitation of Canada's natural resources and further the harmonization of environmental Standards between the two countries. In view ofthe Canadian experience, the article concludes that for Switzerland an economic agreement with the EC without parallel environmental commitments could have significant, negative consequences.

CCS AS ONE OF the CO2 EMISSION REDUCTION METHODS

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Teresa ADAMCZAK-BIAŁY ◽  
Adam WÓJCICKI
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Geological Storage ◽  
Co2 Emission Reduction ◽  
And Storage

Information presented in the article allows us to introduce one of the ways of reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions responsible for the temperature increase and climate change. This is the technology of capture and underground storage of carbon dioxide in geologic structures (Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration – CCS). Most of the large-scale CCS projects (i.e. capture and storage of an order of magnitude of 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year) operate in the United States and Canada. Many of them are associated with the use of CO2 captured from the industrial processes for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The presented examples of projects are: Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Sequestration Demonstration Project (Canada), Great Plains Synfuels and Weyburn-Midale Project (Canada), and Kemper County IGCC Project (United States). CCS projects are crucial for demonstrating the technological readiness and reduce the cost of wider commercial implementation of capture and geological storage of CO2. The status of the projects on geological storage of CO2 in 2015 is 15 large-scale CCS projects operating around the world, and 7 projects in execution.

THE STATUS OF OILED WILDLIFE: RESEARCH AND PLANNING

1975 ◽  
Vol 1975 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-253
Author(s):  
Keith G. Hay
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Research Results ◽  
The Status

ABSTRACT The cleaning and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife, especially waterfowl, has been one of our most difficult environmental problems to solve. It is plagued by controversy, emotion, apathy, and a host of biological unknowns. Costs have been high and survival rates low. This paper discusses the efforts taken by organizations and individuals in recent years to reverse this trend. It assesses biological problems and outlines research results. It analyzes people problems and wildlife contingency planning and presents a review of recent accomplishments in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.

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