80[0] More Years of Oil: The Big Attraction of Carbon Capture

[Meredith Poor + 887]

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Zhao concluded that the pool would have stopped producing oil by 2016 without CO2 injection, but that “enhanced oil recovery could extend the pool’s lifespan to 39 or even 84 more years.”

Under certain circumstances a mixture of CO2 and water will reach an equilibrium state with methane (CH4). Among the conditions that could lead to this is geothermal heating (particularly above 200 degrees C); hydrogen (H2) or hydrogen sulfide (H2S) content within the reservoir; or 'ultramafic rocks' rich in magnesium, which would strip the oxygen from water or CO2.

Many 'limnic' lakes (Lake Kivu, for instance) have CO2 seeping in from underlying volcanic rocks. In some cases the reactions are via bacteria or archeaea, however abiotic reactions are also possible.

Under such circumstances, hydrocarbon recovery would continue 'indefinitely', limited by the reactants available in the reservoir. Most of this would be gas, it is unlikely that oil production would continue beyond present reservoir depletion.