The use of CO₂ for commercial EOR began in the United States in the early 1970’s, there is currently about 120 registered CO₂ floods worldwide, almost 85 percent of which are in the USA and Canada. In North America, it is estimated that over 45 billion barrels of proven oil reserves will be available for production through the application of CO₂ enhanced oil recovery. Enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide offers an immediate to medium term opportunity to produce more oil from mature fields that have already been drilled and have much of the needed infrastructure already in place.  

Under the right temperature, pressure and oil composition conditions, CO₂ acts as a solvent, cleaning oil trapped in the microscopic pores of the reservoir rock. This miscible (or immiscible) process greatly increases the recovery of oil from a reservoir compared to the recoveries normally seen by waterflooding.