pilot project at salt creek

This is an old article but shows that Anadarko had a pilot project at Salt Creek and trucked in their CO2. I believe it was over two months so that they could see a response from the field.

Maybe Elk should do that, buy Exxon’s interruptible CO2, truck it to Grieve and pump it in. Reserves would then move to 2P according to RS.

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 12:01 AM MDT

CASPER - Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) is replacing pipes and re-tooling wells at the Salt Creek oilfield 40 miles north of Casper to prepare for the first phase of its $200 million carbon dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery project there.

The company expects to spend about half of the $200 million in the coming 1.5 years, both on the Salt Creek facilities and on a new 125-mile CO2 pipeline connecting the field to a gas plant near Baroil, according to officials.

The company said much of that money is spent locally.

"This project has been around for such a long time and it hadn't been done for economic reasons. Now, those economic factors have come into play," said Alan O'Donnell, manager of project development for Anadarko.

O'Donnell and several other Anadarko officials briefed the Star-Tribune about the project on Friday. They also toured Sweetwater, Carbon and Natrona counties this week to update local officials on the project and field questions.

Representatives from Natrona County municipalities, including Casper and Midwest, the county commissioners and the state legislature also sat in on a presentation from Anadarko officials Friday.
Though even the oil-savvy people in the room were a bit perplexed, those who were surveyed were impressed with the ideas.

"It's jobs, some of it would be jobs for Wyoming" said County Commission vice chairman Mike Haigler. "It's revenue, some of it would be tax revenue."

Company literature claims Anadarko will pay about $3.8 million in local property and gross products taxes to the county.

As for oil companies' spotty environmental history in the state, Rep. Ann Robinson, D-Casper, said she thinks both the state and the oil industry have matured.

"I think they realize that they have to be responsible," she said.

Anadarko, the world's second largest independent oil and gas producer, entered Wyoming in July 2000 when it merged with Union Pacific Resources, gaining the 700-mile mineral rich "land grant strip" in southern Wyoming. Anadarko is also a major player in the Powder River Basin coalbed methane play.

Early this year, Anadarko entered Salt Creek with its purchased Howell Corp. for $265 million, including $65 milliion of Howell's debt. Anadarko's plan is to use Wyoming-produced CO2 flood the 100 year old Salt Creek field, gradually increasing production from the current level of 5,500 barrels per day to nearly 30,000 barrels per day four years from now.

Production could continue 10 to 20 years beyond that point to sweep a total additional 150 million barrels of oil from Salt Creek, according to company literature. Over the same period, Anadarko would have sequestered 30 million tons of CO2 -- a greenhouse gas -- that otherwise would be vented into the atmosphere, said O'Donnell.

Anadarko expects to construct the 125-mile CO2 pipeline during the second half of this year.

Phase One of the project will begin in 2004. During that year, nearly 300 existing production and injection wells at Salt Creek will be checked and re-tooled to handle the CO2 and added production.

Currently, crews are working on a pilot project at Salt Creek, trucking CO2 to the field to prove the technology on a small scale.

Anadarko will operate under the name of its now wholly-owned subsidiary Howell Corp. Its Salt Creek field is currently the base for 26 employees and 11 in-house contractors. Anadarko has two employees who work in Casper.

In addition to its plans at Salt Creek, Anadarko also purchased marketing rights of CO2 produced at ExxonMobile's LaBarge gas plant. The idea is to woo other oil producers in the Powder River Basin into tapping into the Salt Creek CO2 line to revive more oilfields in the basin.

Rick Robitaille, Anadarko's manager of public affairs, Western Division, said some companies have expressed some interest in starting their own CO2 enhanced oil recover projects by tapping into Salt Creek pipeline, "but nothing has been inked yet."

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2003/04/10/news/wyoming/8e4bb1469a59e690b9a1115fc55892ae.txt