Denbury is unique among domestic oil and gas companies, because our primary corporate strategy and focus is aimed at developing significant stranded reserves of American oil from depleted reservoirs through carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (“CO2 EOR”). During the CO2 EOR process, we reinvest in our areas of operation by cleaning up legacy fields, making possible future growth and long-term community development.
Facility development and field improvements provide a significant economic injection to both state and local economies. Well work, field infrastructure improvements, land acquisition, CO2 recycle facility construction, power installation and other capital expenditures can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars per field. Direct and indirect impacts include new job creation and growth in labor income and gross regional product, resulting in added value to the area through state and local tax revenue, royalty income and product sales. Our projects generally can span between 10-20 years of consistent investment.
Our process rejuvenates fields as we install equipment with cutting-edge technology to ensure identification of age-related problems and modernization of facilities to prepare them for CO2 injection. CO2 EOR operations require specialized equipment that replaces and consolidates older equipment and facilities, resulting in a smaller environmental footprint from production operations. Areas of field improvement routinely include:
- mechanical integrity review of wellbores and surface production facilities;
- pressure testing of existing casing and replacement (if necessary) of old tubing;
- installation of new wellhead equipment;
- installation of emissions reduction equipment;
- installation of remote telemetry field monitoring equipment that reduces vehicle traffic;
- installation of sound barriers, silencers and landscaping;
- reclamation of land after removal of old and unneeded equipment;
- replacement of old production flow lines with new flow lines; and
- installation of other updated technical equipment to assist with 24/7 operations and safety monitoring activities.