The planning team for the 26th Annual CO2 Conference is extremely pleased to officially announce the details of this year’s conference.
As you know, we are a conference dedicated to tackling the many challenges of CO2 flooding, CCUS, CCS, and then publicizing the best practices our industry utilizes in CO2 applications. Most folks in our industry know the Permian Basin is the world leader in those field-based technologies and the tools and practices used. We also know the world keeps moving and maybe our Conference can assist in helping companies get more of the oil from their reservoirs.
This year’s conference was especially challenging. The COVID pandemic created resistance for airline travel and large group meetings and changed the way conferences like ours evolved. We had a virtual audience for the most part but also had our headquarters in Midland (the George Bush Convention Center downtown) as a physical networking option. Getting folks together to find and develop new project business has always been a goal of our Conference so we were reluctant to entirely abandon the physical interaction objectives of the Conference.
We are also an event that realizes that our hydrocarbon industries need to figure out a way to better minimize our environmental footprint. The area we chose to emphasize is reducing CO2 emissions. We can help do that by illustrating the value of CO2 EOR in permanently storing CO2 while producing oil.
If we can help companies capture emitted CO2, compress it, and pipeline it to the World’s oil fields, we have a unique role there as well. The pressures to reduce CO2 emissions have done nothing but grow since we started our annual EOR Carbon Management Workshop in 2003.
Finally, we like to pick out a couple of promising field-deployed tools and methods that we can highlight each year to help with the continuing CO2 challenges ahead. We did that with our first-ever virtual CO2 Field Tour this year.
This year’s agenda for the Conference week included the interrelated subjects of CO2 EOR, CCUS/Carbon Management, CO2 reservoir cyclic injection, and residual oil zones (ROZs) exploitation. The hard-line between CCUS and EOR is blurring now and was a strong feature of this year’s agenda in our 18th annual Carbon Management Workshop.
The Conference week plans called for starting on Tuesday morning, December 8th, and continuing thru Thursday afternoon (10th). We headquartered and coordinated virtual and in-person presentations from the new Bush Convention Center. Tuesday called for our annual EOR Carbon Management Workshop addressing the rapid recognition of CCS and CCUS roles in new project planning. We updated the ongoing demonstration projects, exposed many future project plans, and addressed the new and ongoing legislative and policy initiatives including the amended 45Q tax credit. The timing of the Conference in December was perfect for assessing what the presidential election may do for (or to) our CO2 business and we had speakers to opine on the subject.
On Wednesday, we continue the Workshop followed by a sandwich lunch and air the virtual field trip starting that afternoon. That evening, we had our main conference week reception co-sponsored by Kinder Morgan CO2 and the Permian Basin Section of the SPE, and with our site host, the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum.
On Thursday, December 10th, we kicked off the theme sessions. We had some speakers already committed to focusing principally on our long-standing emphasis of CO2 EOR case histories – both U.S and worldwide. We also included a summary talk on the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. We had a summary talk on the status of CO2 in the U.S., and new findings related to the horizontal well San Andres play. The play is still learning landing zone and completion lessons but has grown to where it is producing over 50,000 bopd. The technologies responsible for this new “play” were addressed along with the evolving processes needed for stimulation of the lateral wellbores. We’re keeping an eye out for the play’s possible evolution to CO2 EOR and CCUS in these ROZ greenfield regions.
Below is a summary of the entire conference week activities.
THE ENTIRE CO2 CONFERENCE WEEK – December 8-10, 2020
“This is where the field and office come together to make great projects happen.”
Tuesday Carbon Management Workshop
7:15 am Check-in
Bush Convention Center (BCC)
7:45 am Session I Carbon Mangement Workshop
New Developments in Policy, Legistation, and Regulatory Guidance
11:45 am Luncheon Keynote
Keynote speaker TBD.
12:45 pm Session II Carbon Management Workshop
New Developments in Policy, Legistation, and Regulatory Guidance
5:45 pmAdjourn (No Reception)
Wednesday Carbon Management Workshop & Field Tour
7:15 am Check-in
Bush Convention Center (BCC)
7:45 am Session III Carbon Mangement Workshop
CCUS & CCS Project Planning Underway
11:45 am Luncheon Break
Luncheon Break & Adjourn to Virtual & Physical Field Tour
12:45 pm Field Tour
Local Field Trip to Two Selected Service Companies (Live and PreRecorded)
5:30 pm Evening Reception
Permian Basin Petroleum MuseumSponsors: Kinder Morgan CO2, SPE-PB Section
Thursday Theme Sessions
7:15 am Check-in
Bush Convention Center (BCC)
7:45 am CO2 Theme Session I
U.S. and International CO2 EOR Case Histories
11:45 am On-Site Luncheon
Keynote Speaker: Mike Nasi on “Power Market Reliability: An Updated Look at Integrated Wind and Solar with Thermal Plant Decommissioning”
12:45 pm CO2 Theme Session II
2020 CO2 EOR Survey Updates & Additional CO2 EOR Case Histories
2020 Agenda Details Short Cuts
The net proceeds of the Conference go to the SPE Section for scholarships and to UTPB where we continue to endow an Engineering professorship. Over the years, the sponsors and our attendees have allowed us to contribute nearly $600,000 to the SPE scholarship funds and we have now contributed just under $300,000 to the professorship in the nine years we have been contributing.
The conference planning committee realizes that a virtual conference will be economically challenged. Attendees like yourself are vital to making all of this work and we thank you for your long support and especially for this year. We have warned our recipients of the net revenues this year may be a bust and they are encouraging us to continue to work for our industry through these tough times.
Our committee has always recognized that austerity needs to be considered and we have worked hard to give various forms of value back to our sponsors and attendees. We have discounted the virtual conference fee and are leaving the in-person registration fees approximately the same this year. We do have hotel room blocks set up to try and save our attendees some on their travel costs if they travel to Midland. We will have transportation available to and from the Wednesday evening reception site back to the DoubleTree hotel across the street from the new Convention Center.
We feel that no other conference expressly caters to the companies busy with CO2 flooding and CCUS. We hope that you will again share your organization’s key role with our audience and look forward to seeing you at this year’s event. If you have questions regarding any of this, please feel free to contact us via the contact form below.
Sincerly,
Steve Melzer
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