The once-rich oil fields of Kansas are drying up.

Kansas produced 33.6 million barrels of oil in 2002, about a quarter of the amount produced in the early 1960s. But a pilot project that gets under way next week may lead to new life for the sagging oil industry.

The project — led by scientists at Kansas University — uses liquid carbon dioxide to force up oil that traditional methods left behind. It’s the first time the process has been used in Kansas.

“Oil production’s on a slow death march, in a way,” said Tom Nichols, production manager for Murfin Drilling Co., which operates the field where the project will start.

“We’re looking forward to watching this go and see what happens.”

The field seven miles southeast of Russell — known as the Hall-Gurney field — has produced more than 150 million barrels of oil since drilling began there in 1931. Initial pumping typically extracts about half of the oil in an area.

When production dipped in the late 1950s, operators pumped water into the ground to force up some additional oil.

The entire field produced about 500,000 barrels of oil in 2001, about half its output a decade earlier. Production has completely stopped in the two wells tapped for the carbon dioxide project.

Public-private venture

Workers from Murfin Drilling Co. work on a carbon dioxide injection well near Russell. Scientists, led by Kansas University, next week will begin injecting carbon dioxide into the oil field to pump new oil to the surface.

The new venture is part of a $4.4 million project, funded by private, state and federal money, to perform a similar injection process on the wells — but this time pumping liquid carbon dioxide 3,000 feet into the ground. The carbon dioxide dissolves into pockets of oil, pushing it toward the surface through the porous limestone.

Carbon dioxide flooding has been used in western Texas since the 1970s.

“We know the process would work,” said Paul Willhite, director of the Tertiary Oil Recovery Project at the KU School of Engineering. “We’re not doing new technology.”

While the technology is proven, the finances of using it in Kansas are not.

Texas oil producers are able to use carbon dioxide because it occurs naturally beneath the surface in Texas and eastern New Mexico. A new pipeline that extends to the Oklahoma panhandle provides carbon dioxide there.

Production possibilities

No such natural deposits exist in Kansas. The carbon dioxide used in the Russell project will come from an ethanol plant in Russell. Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of making ethanol.

Trucking carbon dioxide to well sites across the state would be expensive. But if the Russell pilot project shows enough promise for producing additional oil, companies may find it feasible to extend the carbon dioxide pipeline to the oil fields of central Kansas.

That would probably cost about $50 million. Alan Byrnes, petroleum geologist with the Kansas Geological Survey at KU, said the pilot project should show within six to eight years whether that would be a good investment.

“We don’t know exactly how much is left and how much we’ll recover,” Byrnes said. “This is the kind of thing you won’t know until you try it.”

Estimates show the field could produce an additional 14 million barrels of oil. At a price of about $30 per barrel, that’s $420 million.

Statewide impact

If carbon dioxide flooding works in Russell and is then used across the state, Willhite and Byrnes said the economic effect could be in the billions of dollars.

“For this to be economical, you have to have a large number of wells,” Willhite said. “The value of the product is high, but the capital investment is high also.”

Nichols, the Murfin Drilling manager, said once the pilot project was complete, Murfin and other companies would begin crunching numbers to determine whether carbon dioxide will guide Kansas oil production in the future.

Because the project’s funding includes $2.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, results will be available for public scrutiny.

“It’s going to take a fair amount of analysis,” Nichols said. “A lot of things come into play. I definitely think it has expansion possibilities.”