"The Permian Basin is one of the largest structural basins in North America. It encompasses a surface area in excess of 86,000 sq mi and includes all or parts of 52 counties located in West Texas and southeast New Mexico. Structurally, the Permian Basin is bounded on the south by the Marathon-Ouachita Fold Belt, on the west by the Diablo Platform and Pedernal Uplift, on the north by the Matador Arch, and on the east by the Eastern Shelf of the Permian (Midland) Basin and west flank of the Bend Arch. The basin is about 260 mi by 300 mi in area and is separated into eastern and western halves by a north-south trending Central Basin Platform. In cross section, the basin is an asymmetrical feature; the western half contains a thicker and more structurally deformed sequence of sedimentary rock. The Permian Basin has been characterized as a large structural depression formed as a result of downwarp in the Precambrian basement surface located at the southern margin of the North American craton. The basin was filled with Paleozoic and, to a much lesser extent, younger sediments. It acquired its present structural form by Early Permian time." [1]
The Permian Basin has long been a leader in secondary and tertiary CO2 flooding operations. The Basin has produced a cumulative 35 billion barrels of oil with an estimated 20 billion coming from waterflooding. Carbon dioxide flooding has a cumulative production of 750 million barrels and growing by over 60 million barrels per year.Technology for transporting, injecting and processing CO2 has been developed to a level providing for 450 billion cubic feet (25 million tons) per year of "new" CO2 and processing and reinjecting 550 billion cubic feet (31 million tons) per year.
Today the Basin produces about 350 million barrels of oil and 1,500 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year.
[1] From "PERMIAN BASIN PROVINCE (044)" By Mahlon M. Ball — Read the rest of this paper via the USGS website. It contains detailed descriptions of the various plays within the Permian Basin.
