CROSS-SECTIONS FROM THE MIDWEST REGIONAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION PARTNERSHIP: VISUALIZING SUBSURFACE CARBON STORAGE OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN UNITED STATES

In the fourteen years following creation of the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) domestic energy production and CO₂ point-source trends in the United States have experienced tremendous changes. Increasing use of natural gas as a source of electrical generation, coupled with the rise of renewable technologies, resulted in the closing of many coal-fired power plants. The coal-fired plants that remain open must now strike a balance between competitive economics and an increasingly climate-conscious public. These challenges necessitate a continued comprehensive, nation-wide, investigation of CO₂ mitigation strategies, including carbon storage in deep saline aquifers as well as enhanced recovery of oil and natural gas via CO₂floods.

In support of these efforts, MRCSP is characterizing Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) opportunities across a ten state-region in the central and eastern United States. Updating and packaging the existing database of petroleum fields in the region has been one of the major MRCSP tasks of the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES) across this region.

WVGES is also working with other MRCSP researchers to construct of a set of regional cross-sections illustrating subsurface opportunities for CO₂ Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in depleted oil fields; Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) in organic-rich shales, and CO₂ storage in deep saline aquifers. A set of three cross-sections will be delivered as part of this effort: a cross-section illustrating opportunities in the north-central reaches of the region; a central cross-section that ties into a similar section constructed during earlier research; and an offshore Atlantic section illustrating onshore-to-offshore opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic. These cross sections will augment existing knowledge of subsurface reservoirs across the region.

When combined with results from other areas of MRCSP research, these cross-sections enable policy makers, researchers, and other constituent groups across a wide geographic area to visualize and determine the types of CCUS strategies that represent viable options for mitigation of CO₂ point sources in their respective areas.

MRCSP is supported by U.S. Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory Agreement No. DE-FC26-0NT42589.