The National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative: What is it?

On the 28th February 2012, a new set of recommendations was announced by the U.S. National Oil Recovery Initiative (or the NEORI). The initiative is made up of various stakeholders from different industries, including investor and public-owned oil and gas producers, state officials, environmental groups and projects developers, all of which are said to benefit dramatically from the NEORI's new strategy.

The main aims of the NEORI are three-fold. The primary objective is to cut CO2 emissions through the use of enhanced oil recovery. Enhanced oil recovery (or EOR) uses CO2 that is injected underground to force hard-to-extract oil to the surface, but there is a limited supply of CO2. The NEORI intends to put into use the waste CO2 from other large-pollution industries, therefore preventing billions of tonnes of CO2 from being released into our atmosphere.

On NEORI's official website, they claim that this initiative will 'quadruple U.S. oil production from EOR, to 400 million barrels a year, while reducing CO2 emissions by 4 billion tons over the next 40 years' thanks to a proposed federal tax credit. Environmental groups will further be delighted with this scheme because by being able to access the otherwise stranded oil supplies found in existing US oil field, they will not have to drill in protected areas or offshore.

The second benefit to this initiative is that U.S. security will be enhanced. This is because by tapping into the available homeland oil, they will be able to reduce trade with hostile and unstable regimes from which they purchase foreign oil.

And finally, there is also a clear economic benefit to the NEORI. Touching on the above, not having to import oil from overseas will help cut the trade deficit (the expected expenditure saving is $610 billion over 40 years) and will also see that jobs are created in the U.S. instead of the same dollars being spent overseas. Job creation and the tax revenue created through the NEORI will hopefully give the U.S. a much-needed economic boost.


For consultation on deploying enhanced oil recovery methods, look no further.