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Latest Headlines
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Apr 8, 2009 7:14:00 PM MST
Enbridge chooses locations for next step of first deep CO2 storage project (Carbon-Capture-Projec)
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CALGARY _ A region west of Edmonton has been chosen as the location of an industry-led pilot project that will see tonnes of carbon produced by Alberta´s massive oil and gas industry pumped into saltwater reservoirs deep below the ground.
The Alberta Saline Aquifer Project is moving ahead with the second phase of the up to $50 million test after selecting three potential reserves in the Wabamun area.
"This is an important initiative in terms of making the overall resource development of oil, coal, etc., more environmentally acceptable," said Patrick Daniel, CEO of Enbridge (TSX:ENB), which is leading the project.
The first phase, which cost $1 million, focused on finding specific locations where carbon storage was feasible, doing safety studies and determining the regulatory work necessary to go ahead.
The second phase involves actually injecting the CO2 into the aquifers after all the regulatory approvals are obtained. Daniel said they´re hoping to go ahead with this by 2015.
"We´re not prepared to spike the football yet," he said.
"We have to be putting CO2 into the ground and hence keeping it from going into the atmosphere before we´re ready to celebrate."
Deep saline aquifers are located kilometres below the earth´s surface and often once held part of the province´s oil and gas reserves.
They´re not open caverns, but rather basins filled with tightly packed sand that´s still porous enough to hold saltwater.
"The natural seal, the same mechanism that kept oil and gas down there for millions of years, keeps the carbon dioxide down there," said Chuck Szmurlo, vice president of alternative and emerging technology.
Deep saline aquifers are currently being used to store carbon in the Algerian desert and beneath the North Sea, he said.
While these projects will help Alberta´s attempt to get up and running, Szmurlo acknowledged there are some key differences.
"There aren´t highways and grade schools and ranches under the North Sea," he said. "The geology´s different and there are different considerations about it."
Critics of carbon capture argue it´s expensive and will have little impact on the huge volume of greenhouse gas emissions spewing from Alberta´s oilsands plants
They argue shifting our energy reliance away from carbon-based fuels and a reduction in energy use are much more practical.
The ASAP project will be awarded some funding from the federal government´s $230 million ecoENERGY Technology Initiative, although the amount hasn´t yet been worked out.
The Alberta government has put aside $2 billion for carbon capture technologies, the centrepiece of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050.
The group has put in some requests for funding under the project but don´t know if they´ll be selected.
The community of Wabamun hasn´t yet been consulted, said Daniel.
"We will be consulting very closely with communities and walking through the research that has been done with regard to the safety of storage," he said.
That won´t happen until precise routes have been mapped out. Exactly how the emerging technology will be regulated in the province still isn´t clear, said Daniel.
It will be likely regulated by a process similar to the energy regulator that oversees new oil and gas projects in the province, he said.
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