Agency Overview
The Agency mission is to facilitate a meaningful and measurable increase in recoverable reserves and production of oil and natural gas in Wyoming that may otherwise not be realized. Key to this is the effective and efficient transfer of relevant technology, information and knowledge to Wyoming producers. The mission is met by assisting Wyoming oil & gas producers through education, research and leveraging advances in mineral extraction technology. The Enhanced Oil Recovery Commission (EORC) administers the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute (EORI) for the purpose of assisting Wyoming oil & gas producers to increase oil & gas production, and as result, increase tax revenues of the state. The governor appoints and the legislature confirms eight commissioners who serve on the EORC overseeing the EORI’s financial and strategic planning.  EORI is part of the School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming. The university provides offices and laboratory facilities in which EORI works. A Technical Advisory Board (TAB), comprised of leading experts from universities and energy companies in the United States, provides technical oversight of EORI work.

EORI works to help the State of Wyoming and its energy producers to recover a large resource of stranded oil in depleted oil reservoirs as rapidly, responsibly, and economically as possible. EORI is the only institution devoted to enhanced oil recovery in Wyoming oil fields.

EORI is dedicated to delivering relevant, topical solutions to producers in Wyoming, primarily focused on application of new technologies and applications through field demonstrations and supports additional development work as necessary to support commercial-scale implementation. As part of this commitment, the institute has adopted a culture consistent with that of that state’s oil producers – EORI’s priorities and values align with the oil industry’s priorities and values, they talk industry language, and their projects meet industry standards.

In addition to industry cooperation and project co-funding, EORI works closely with the other University of Wyoming centers of excellence – particularly the Center for Economic Geologic Research and the Center for Fundamentals of Subsurface Flow, both at the School of Energy Research.

Agency Background & Structure
The Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute (EORI), or Institute was created by the Wyoming Legislature with the intent to backfill the vacuum left during the oil market depression in the 1970s and 1980s. The expectation was that the Institute would provide the oil and gas engineering, geology, and economics research that used to be provided by the major oil companies who at the time had staffs located in Wyoming. With the downturn of the industry and the retraction of the majors to locations like Denver, Oklahoma City, Houston, and Bakersfield, there was a lack of technical expertise in the state of Wyoming to support the much relied upon hydrocarbon extraction industry.

EORI provides these services through and in cooperation with the School of Energy Resources (SER) at the University of Wyoming. In order to be closer to the oil and gas producers as well as the service industry that supports the oil and gas producers, the Institute is centered in Casper. This allows for the continued collaboration with researcher and assets on campus in Laramie while at the same time engaging with the producers and their support industry in Casper and at the wellhead.