The US Department of Energy (DoE) has released a report indicating that carbon capture and sequestration in oil and gas fields could significantly increase the recoverable oil resources of the US. According to the report, 89 billion barrels or more could eventually be added to the current U.S. proven reserves of 21.4 billion barrels.

Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said, “By using the proven technique of carbon sequestration, we get the double benefit of taking carbon dioxide out of air while getting more oil out of the earth.”

The DoE also found that, in the longer term, multiple advances in technology and widespread sequestration of industrial carbon dioxide could eventually add as much as 430 billion barrels to the technically recoverable resource.