Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the Farnsworth Unit’s (FWU) carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR) operations were accounted for through a gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) for a period of about 10 years, since start of injection to 2020, and predictions of 18 additional years of the CO₂-EOR operation were made. The CO₂ source for the FWU project has been 100% anthropogenically derived from the exhaust of an ethanol plant and a fertilizer plant. A cumulative amount of 5.25 × 10⁶ tonnes of oil has been recovered through the injection of 1.64 × 10⁶ tonnes of purchased CO₂, of which 92% was stored during the 10-year period. An LCA analysis conducted on the various unit emissions of the FWU process yielded a net negative (positive storage) of 1.31 × 10⁶ tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, representing 79% of purchased CO₂. An optimized 18-year forecasted analysis estimated 86% storage of the forecasted 3.21 × 10⁶ tonnes of purchased CO₂ with an equivalent 2.90 × 10⁶ tonnes of crude oil produced by 2038. Major contributors to emissions were flaring/venting and energy usage for equipment. Improvements on the energy efficiency of equipment would reduce emissions further but this could be challenging. Improvement of injection capacity and elimination of venting/flaring or fugitive gas are methods more likely to be utilized for reducing net emissions and are the cases used for the optimized scenario in this work. This LCA illustrated the potential for the CO₂-EOR operations in the FWU to store more CO₂ with minimal emissions.

The petroleum reservoir represents a complex heterogeneous system that requires thorough characterization prior to the implementation of any incremental recovery technique. One of the most commonly utilized and successful secondary recovery techniques is waterflooding. However, a lack of sufficient investigation into the inherent behavior and characteristics of the reservoir formation in situ can result in failure or suboptimal performance of waterflood operations. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the geological history, static and dynamic reservoir characteristics, and petrophysical data is essential for analyzing the mechanisms and causes of waterflood inefficiency and failure. In this study, waterflood inefficiency was observed in the Morrow B reservoir located in the Farnsworth Unit, situated in the northwestern shelf of the Anadarko Basin, Texas. To assess the potential mechanisms behind the inefficiency of waterflooding in the east half, geological, petrophysical, and reservoir engineering data, along with historical information, were integrated, reviewed, and analyzed. The integration and analysis of these datasets revealed that several factors contributed to the waterflood inefficiency. Firstly, the presence of abundant dispersed authigenic clays within the reservoir, worsened by low reservoir quality and high heterogeneity, led to unfavorable conditions for waterflood operations. The use of freshwater for flooding exacerbated the adverse effects of sensitive and migratory clays, further hampering the effectiveness of the waterflood. In addition to these factors, several reservoir engineering issues played a significant role in the inefficiency of waterflooding. These issues included inadequate perforation strategies due to the absence of detailed hydraulic flow units (HFUs) and rock typing, random placement of injectors, and uncontrolled injected fresh water. These external controlling parameters further contributed to the overall inefficiencies observed during waterflood operations in the east half of the reservoir. A detailed understanding of the mechanistic factors of inefficient waterflood operation will provide adequate insights into the development of the improved recovery technique for the field.