Slide 8. Stacked Sinks

Geologic sequestration is done today as part of enhanced oil recovery processes. Although the intention is not permanent storage, but rather to make money through increased production of incremental oil, the dual result of more oil and CO₂ storage is a good thing for the U.S. and the world. CO₂ infrastructure (pipelines, compression, producing and injection wells) is very expensive. One sensible approach to geologic sequestration is to encourage enhanced oil recovery as an initial means to sequester CO₂, produce more oil and build significant CO₂ surface infrastructure. The same infrastructure can then be used for brine reservoir injection and sequestration. The Gulf Coast Carbon Center at the Bureau of Economic Geology pioneered this concept and coined the term “stacked sinks.”