THE CARBON SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL OF THE DENVER-JULESBURG BASIN OF COLORADO

Carbon sequestration, or the storing of carbon dioxide (CO2) created by human activities, is an emerging technology of national and international importance due to its potential for mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas-induced global warming. Geologic carbon sequestration involves the capture of CO2 generated from point sources such as coal-burning power plants and oil and gas refineries, and its subsequent injection into subsurface geologic formations such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs, uneconomic coal seams, and deep saline aquifers.

GIS technology holds great potential for assessing options for geologic carbon sequestration by characterizing available subsurface sequestration targets (sinks) and spatially relating CO2 sources and sinks. The Colorado Energy Research Institute at the Colorado School of Mines has developed a geodatabase to assess the geologic sequestration options for specific CO2 sources in Eastern Colorado as the first phase of a three-part study on the geologic sequestration potential of the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado. Data parameters such as depth, distance from source, size, and hydrocarbon production history were aggregated for 965 known oil and gas reservoirs, which were then screened for criteria necessary for CO2 injection and long-term storage. 64 oil reservoirs were identified as potentially amenable to CO2-enhanced oil recovery and 38 oil and gas reservoirs were identified as potential large volume sinks for CO2. Coal bed methane and deep saline aquifer reservoirs were also identified. The geodatabase was used to identify the most promising reservoirs for carbon sequestration from a specific CO2 source and narrow the focus of further assessment of the suitability of these reservoirs for long-term carbon storage.