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Natural Resources |
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Helium & CO2 gas is produced at Bueyeros. |
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| Carbon Dioxide
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| In the northeast
quadrant of New Mexico, the industry is developing what is believed to
be the largest deposit of CO2 in the United States. The
Bueyeros field,
better know as the Bravo Dome, encompasses 1.2 million acres in
Harding,
Union and Quay Counties. It is estimated to contain over 16 trillion
cubic feet of CO2 reserves. Approximately half of these in-place
reserves are
considered to be recoverable using currently available technology. Total
2002 CO2 production was 100 billion cubic feet valued at nearly $61
million. This represents a 14% decrease in production from 2001, but
prices remained strongly above $0.55 per Mcf throughout the year
allowing for good revenue for the producers and to the state. Virtually
all CO2 marketed in the state is
transported to oilfields in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico
for use in enhanced oil recovery projects, where it is injected instead
of water and has a
“scouring” effect on oil producing formations, thereby moving more oil
through the formations towards the producing wells. |
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| The
Bueyeros field
(Phinney et al., 1978, Caffee et al., 1999) is a small section of the
Bravo Dome gas field, which covers an area of some ~2400km2 and contains
an estimated 2.3x1011m3 (STP) of 99%+ pure CO2. The field is located in
Harding and Union Counties, New Mexico, 35 km to the South of the
Cenozoic volcanism (Raton-Clayton field) related to the Sierra Grande
uplift. |
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| Naturally occurring
carbon dioxide has been produced from three fields in Union and
Harding
counties (Broadhead 1987). The Bueyeros and Bravo Dome fields continue
to produce. Several plants produce dry ice and liquid carbon dioxide and
Amoco has piped gaseous carbon dioxide to the Permian basin for enhanced
oil recovery. Estimates of recoverable reserves in the Bravo dome and
Bueyeros fields are from 5.3-9.8 trillion ft3 (Broadhead
1987). The origin of the carbon dioxide is controversial and hypotheses
have included juvenile magmatic gases and breakdown of carbonate rocks
by intrusions of groundwater (Broadhead 1987). |
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