From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

CO2-EOR+ in Australia: achieving low-emissions oil and unlocking residual oil resources

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

The petroleum industry, through the production and consumption of oil and gas, contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the industry’s leadership and experience in underground injection and storage of CO2, especially through CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR), which has been proposed as a possible solution to reducing atmospheric CO2 levels, has not been well acknowledged. Unlike traditional CO2-EOR, which tends to be a net carbon emitter due to the use of predominantly natural CO2, rather than anthropogenic, CO2-EOR+ focuses on storing a larger volume of CO2. Thus CO2-EOR+ not only provides a potential solution to dispose of anthropogenic emissions but at the same time reduces reliance on imported oil through increased domestic production. Increased industry interest and energy policy strategies directed at reducing and/or removing emissions from industry processes reflect the growing social and economic impetus to improve operation practices and the petroleum industry’s reputation. Residual oil zones (ROZs) below identified oil–water contacts provide an excellent target for the application of CO2-EOR+. They offer a producible residual oil resource accessible through CO2-EOR, as well as a large pore volume for CO2 storage, with efforts focused on converting ROZs into resources and reserves. Existing fields in the Surat and Cooper-Eromanga Basins are already well placed to utilise anthropogenic CO2 sources to achieve conventional CO2-EOR metrics. The ROZs in these basins will hopefully allow potential EOR projects to increase the CO2 volumes stored, per incremental barrel of oil, well past traditional levels (0.2–0.3 tCO2/bbl), and in doing so, potentially achieve net negative-emission oil. Citation:Tenthorey Eric, Taggart Ian, Kalinowski Aleksandra, McKenna Jason (2021) CO2-EOR+ in Australia: achieving low-emissions oil and unlocking residual oil resources. The APPEA Journal 61, 118-131. https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20076

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title CO2-EOR+ in Australia: achieving low-emissions oil and unlocking residual oil resources
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/eee62540-0d70-43a0-9de7-e764f05e7b87
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "CO2-EOR+ in Australia: achieving low-emissions oil and unlocking residual oil resources". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/co2-eor-in-australia-achieving-low-emissions-oil-and-unlocking-residual-oil-resources