West Pearl Queen

Project Overview

The project is the first major field experiment in the United States to test whether underground geologic formations might be used in the future to entrap carbon gases and isolate them permanently from the atmosphere. Between December 20, 2002 and February 10, 2003, researchers injected approximately 2,100 tons of CO2 into Strata Production Company's West Pearl Queen reservoir near Hobbs. The quantity of CO2 injected in the New Mexico project is comparable to a single day of emissions from an average coal-fired power plant. Now, researchers are monitoring the CO2 plume as it "soaks" into the reservoir rock. The objective is to determine whether the gases are likely to stay within the formation. This field experiment puts to the test what others have only studied in the laboratory.

Project Type

Storage.

Location

Hobbs, New Mexico, U.S.A.

Type of CO₂ Storage Operation

Depleted oil field

Major Stakeholders

U.S. Department of Energy
National Energy Technology Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Strata

Project Scale

Pilot.

Project Start Year: unknown

	2002/2003

	Unknown
	Unknown
	0.21 kt

Project Cost

Industry US$ 800 000; Federal US$2 400 000.