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HTC Purenergy signs deal for EPCOR engineering study
2008-08-01 08:07 MT - News Release
Mr. Jeff Allison reports
REGINA-BASED HTC PURENERGY TO PARTICPATE IN A CO2 CAPTURE SYSTEM PROCESS DESIGN AND SITE INTEGRATION ENGAGEMENT
HTC Purenergy Inc. has signed an agreement with the EPCOR Power Development Corp. (EPCOR) to deliver a process design and site integration engineering study to look into the potential of a carbon dioxide capture facility on a coal-fired plant.
The study will assist EPCOR in the preliminary stages of determining whether postcombustion amine-based CO2 capture technology can be used on larger-scale coal-fired power plants.
Pilot plant will showcase new technology
High-pressure hydrogen extracts oil
Canwest News Service
Friday, August 01, 2008
The former chairman of Western Oil Sands Inc. is championing a new hydrogen-making technology that will be used at a $13-million pilot plant near Fort Saskatchewan.
Guy Turcotte said he intended to be a financial partner only in Western Hydrogen Ltd., a Calgary-based company that won a $4.3-million federal grant Monday, but he stepped up his involvement after his partner Doug Monaghan, 41, and seven-year-old daughter Amy were killed near Field, B.C., last Dec. 30.
"His wife and his five-year-old son are the other shareholders," Turcotte said. "Doug approached me 21/2 years ago to be his partner, knowing this could potentially be a product to sell to the oilsands upgrading world."
Turcotte, a chemical engineer, said the patented technology has been developed with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy over the past two years and has proven in the lab to be effective and more cost-efficient than existing methods.
The process, called alkaline metal reforming, produces high volumes of high-pressure hydrogen using low-cost feedstocks including glycerol, crop waste and petroleum coke. It is said to cost 35 per cent less to build and have environmental and energy cost advantages over widely used steam methane reforming or SMR.
The technology also produces a concentrated stream of CO2 that could be fed into a carbon capture and storage system. Turcotte said he has already applied to the Alberta government for a grant under its $2-billion carbon sequestration project to match the money committed by federal agency Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
The project has the support of Aux Sable Canada Ltd., which will contribute land at its site in Fort Saskatchewan among the refineries and chemical plants of the Industrial Heartland, on which a pilot plant will be built for about $12.9 million.
In return, it will likely wind up operating the two-million-cubic-feet-per-day hydrogen pilot plant and getting a front-row look at its technology. Aux Sable is owned by Enbridge Inc. and Fort Chicago Energy Partners. Western Oil Sands, founded by Turcotte, was sold to Marathon Oil Corp. last October for $6.6 billion.
To upgrade molasses-like bitumen from the oilsands into synthetic light crude, producers must either add hydrogen or subtract carbon.
Ian Potter, vice-president of energy at the Alberta Research Council, said 1.5 billion cubic feet of hydrogen is required every day to upgrade current production of 950,000 barrels of bitumen from the oilsands. Most of the hydrogen comes from natural gas.
"Companies are very comfortable (with SMR) so there needs to be a step change to get them away from it. The issue at the moment is the price of natural gas," he said.
Potter said alternative technologies are being investigated, including coal or petroleum coke gasification projects that could generate hydrogen as a main product.
Wavefront Energy loses $3.34-million in nine months
2008-07-30 17:23 MT - News Release
Mr. D. Brad Paterson reports
WAVEFRONT ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES INC. ANNOUNCES THIRD QUARTER RESULTS; FURTHER PRODUCTION IMPROVEMENT SEEN IN ALBERTA POWERWAVE PROJECT
Wavefront Energy and Environmental Services Inc. has released its financial and operating results for the third quarter ended May 31, 2008.
During the nine-month reporting period, Wavefront has made significant strides in showcasing the efficacy of both Powerwave and Primawave in the energy and environmental sectors respectively. The push of the company's game-changing injection process, Powerwave, has resulted in a growing list of clients that are looking to maximize oil recovery factor and extend field life.
For the Alberta Powerwave project first reported in Stockwatch on June 27, 2008, prior to the installation of Powerwave in the three water flood patterns where it is employed, production levels were on a steady decline of approximately 2.3 per cent per month. The production level in December, 2006, was approximately 164 barrels of oil per day (26.07 cubic metres per day) and declining to a value of 135 barrels of oil per day (21.46 cubic metres per day) at the time of the Powerwave installations in September, 2007. In the ensuing six months of Powerwave-enhanced injection ending May, 2008, production levels had increased to approximately 220 barrels of oil per day (34.98 cubic metres per day). Assuming the injection patterns had continued on their natural decline of 2.3 per cent per month (without Powerwave) during the same six-month period, it is estimated that the production levels would have decreased to 120 barrels of oil per day (19.11 cubic metres per day).
Wavefront president and chief executive officer, Brett Davidson, stated: "The Alberta Powerwave results are very compelling and unequivocally demonstrate the benefits and impact the process can have at maximizing recovery factor and extending field life. The Alberta client remains committed to installing multiply systems in the field to gain further upside potential. In the coming weeks and months, Wavefront fully anticipates the entirety of results we are amassing from all locations to be pivotal in global acceptance of Powerwave, equating to a sizable number of units being installed."
Revenues for the nine months ended Feb. 29, 2008, were $1,311,113, an increase of $241,698 from the revenues recognized in the corresponding period of 2007 of $1,069,415. The increase in revenue is primarily a result of the acquisition of Wavefront Sand Pumps & Rentals Ltd. and increased interest revenue. The corporation also recognized production revenue, exclusive of operator fees, of $120,164 (2007 -- $54,323) related to the Rogers county venture and Rodney South venture, and interest income of $319,147 (2007 -- $277,589).
The net loss for the nine months ended May 31, 2008, was $3,341,583 (six cents per share), compared with $3,115,549 (seven cents per share) in 2007. The corporation's operating expenses through the nine-month period were $4,416,755, an increase of $1,503,887 incurred for the same period of last year. The operating expense increase was primarily from:
* Amortization, depreciation, depletion and accretion expense increased by $385,343, which relates to increased Powerwave and Primawave systems, and the amortization of the Greentree definite life intangible asset that amounted to $112,622.
* General and administrative expenses increased by $333,364 due to increased wage, office, vehicle, and repair and maintenance expenses. Selling, marketing and travel expenses increased by $265,882, which relates to increased activity in securing of Powerwave projects across North America. Also included in the cost category are costs totalling $99,458 related to pilot Powerwave projects in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Pennsylvania that will start to generate revenue shortly. Research and development expenses increased by $255,259. Included in the current period's expenses is $252,412 of costs that were previously included in assets under construction.
* Direct costs increased by $201,687, which relates to the nature of the business associated with the rental and sale of associated pumps and services in the heavy oil sector compared with a product mix with a heavier weighting toward the licensing of Powerwave and Primawave.
Offsetting operating expense increases noted above were decreases in stock-based compensation, the recognition of foreign currency gains associated with the translation of the corporation's U.S. subsidiary, and decreases in the writedown of property, plant and equipment. During the nine-month reporting period, Wavefront invested $808,356 in property, plant and equipment, and $282,321 in intangible assets.
The above financial highlights should be read in conjunction with the unaudited consolidated financial statements and management discussion and analysis of results for Wavefront's most recently completed quarter, ended May 31, 2008, which have been filed on SEDAR.
In the environmental sector, Wavefront is buoyed by the progress Primawave is achieving in the marketplace. The process has been used by several of the largest U.S. environmental consulting firms and service contractors to great accolades.
"Primawave and the associated Hornet tool represent the first truly new innovative technology for the delivery of treatment fluids in the environmental sector in the past 10 years," commented Pat Hicks, PhD, technical director of Zebra Environmental, a specialized environmental contacting company based in Lynbrook, N.Y. "Zebra and its clients have successfully used Primawave in challenging subsurface environments where conventional methods have proven ill-effective. There is no question Primawave will be in great demand in the environmental marketplace."
"With significant opportunity in the United States and a growing industry worldwide, the environmental sector is of strategic importance to Wavefront's overall business objectives to build shareholder value," stated Brett Davidson. "Primawave has been embraced by a multinational, integrated oil and gas company as a key component of a remedial approach for a former refinery site and we also continue to see favourable uptake of the process across the United States for remedial fluid injections. To complement Primawave and create the environmental sector's first broad-based specialty injection provider, Wavefront will endeavour to evaluate the acquisition of injection technologies such as hydraulic and pneumatic fracturing."
We seek Safe Harbor.
Bruce Johnstone
The Leader-Post
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A trail-blazing, Regina-based research project to study the feasibility of storing carbon dioxide in deep saline aquifers was the recipient of $5 million in federal funding Monday.
The Aquistore Project, conducted by a consortium led by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) in Regina, was one of 19 "clean technology'' projects that received $57 million in funds under the management of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).
The PTRC will use the funding to study the feasibility of storing CO2 in deep saline aquifers. Deep saline aquifers are geological formations with storage capacity over 10 times larger than depleted oil reservoirs in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Aquistore Project's consortium members include Consumers' Co-operative Refineries Ltd. (CCRL), Enbridge Inc., SaskEnergy Inc. and Schlumberger Carbon Services.
The salty water contained in deep saline aquifers is not suitable for drinking or agriculture, making the geological formations an ideal storage area for large-scale industrial CO2 emitters around the world. The Aquistore Project represents the first large-scale (500 tonnes per day of CO2) application of saline aquifer storage of CO2 in North America and the second-largest in the world.
"This is the first comprehensive project,'' said Carolyn Preston, executive director of the PTRC. "We're going from (geological) selection all the way to (CO2) injection monitoring. It's the first project ... on that scale in North America.''
Preston said carbon dioxide will be captured from a hydrogen reformer at the CCRL refinery and upgrader complex in north Regina and carried by a small-diameter pipeline about 10 km north of the city for injection into one of three potential sites. The deep saline aquifers are 2,500 to 3,000 metres deep, far below any potable water or oil and natural gas-bearing formations, she said.
"Right now, the CO2 and the hydrogen that can't be captured are being vented (into the atmosphere),'' she said. "(CCRL) is going to put capture equipment on the reformers during the expansion they're planning. They will also get the hydrogen they use for upgrading (heavy crude) oil.''
SaskEnergy will build the pipeline, while Schlumberger will drill and operate the injection wells. The project could also sell the captured CO2 if there is commercial buyer for it.
"Once the five-year monitoring project is over, it's intended to continue operation ... If it's really successful, (CCRL) will add capture to other two reformers and it becomes a larger-scale injection (project)."
Preston said the project could cost up to $100 million -- of which roughly half could be eligible for federal government funding through SDTC. "We've applied to the (federal) ecoEnergy initiative as well. We're in the second round for that. We've also applied to Saskatchewan Environment for $5 million.''
SDTC, an arm's length, non-profit foundation, has received more than $1 billion from the federal government to support research and development of environmentally sustainable technologies.
SDTC operate two funds: the $550 million sustainable development tech fund, which supports projects that address climate change, air, water and soil quality issues, and the $500-million NextGen Biofuels fund, which supports demonstration projects for the production of 'next generation' biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008
Alter NRG Corp (C-NRG) - News Release
Alter NRG expounds on gasification project in Alberta
2008-07-22 08:12 MT - News Release
Shares issued 56,061,218
NRG Close 2008-07-21 C$ 4.39
Mr. Mark Montemurro reports
ALTER NRG ANNOUNCES CANADA'S FIRST COAL TO LIQUIDS PROJECT
Alter NRG Corp. has filed a public disclosure document outlining further project details on the proposed development of Alter NRG's coal reserves in the Fox Creek area of Alberta into diesel fuel and naphtha. The company is excited to be advancing Canada's first coal to liquids (CTL) with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture project that will provide a clean energy solution for alternative oil production and will use proven processes that have been in commercial operation worldwide for more than 30 years.
The Alberta Energy Research Institute has stated, "Gasification is, by far, the cleanest coal/coke conversion technology." Combined with the planned carbon dioxide capture for use in enhanced oil recovery, the company believes this project is an environmentally attractive energy solution for the province. The company has initiated the regulatory process and a strategic partner selection process, and the project is expected to be operational as early as 2014.
"By filing this public disclosure document, we take an important step toward making this initiative a reality," said Mark Montemurro, president and chief executive officer of Alter NRG. "Alter NRG is concerned about reducing the energy industry's carbon footprint. As the first coal-to-liquids project in Canada, the project will be a significant, long-term contributor to Alberta's economy as well as set a precedent for clean energy solutions."
Further details on the project are outlined below and a copy of the public disclosure document in its entirety can be found on the Alter NRG website or on SEDAR.
About the project
The project will involve the extraction of Alter NRG's Fox Creek coal resource, and through gasification and other processes, will produce diesel fuel and naphtha. Alter NRG's coal reserve contains enough coal to produce 40,000 barrels per day of liquid fuels, such as diesel, for over 50 years.
Alter NRG holds the lease to four Crown coal resources located to the north of Fox Creek township. The project is located approximately 27 kilometres northeast of the town of Fox Creek, Alta., approximately midway between Edmonton and Grande Prairie. The company has ownership of 468 million tonnes of proven plus probable coal reserves and 876 million tonnes of coal resource (both reports have been previously reported in Stockwatch on Dec. 17, 2007, and are filed on SEDAR). The company proposes to mine two blocks of Alter NRG's coal (approximately 301 million tonnes of coal reserve) using established surface mining technology, and then through commercially proven gasification and other processes, to produce high-quality diesel fuel and naphtha.
Alter NRG anticipates that capital investment for a 40,000 bbl/d project will be approximately $4.5-billion (2007 dollars) with an eventual operational work force of 400 or more full-time jobs, excluding added employment in support services. Alter NRG intends to develop the project in at least two stages, with the first stage potentially producing upward of 20,000 bbl/d. Alter NRG believes the project will have a significant, long-term positive effect on the local, regional and provincial economies. The capital cost and mine life have been provided for the purpose of the public disclosure document and a feasibility study has not been completed, and there is not yet certainty that proposed operations will be economically viable.
Alter NRG's Fox Creek coal asset was partly chosen for its proximity to infrastructure and mature oil fields that would benefit from enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by the injection of CO2. The project intends to seek sales opportunities for produced CO2 into the anticipated EOR market. In the event that not all CO2 can be disposed of in this way, the project plans to sequester remaining CO2 in deep saline aquifers or in depleted oil or gas pools. More than 85 per cent of the CO2 produced in the proposed project will be captured for sequestration.
The coal can be mined at a rate of 9.2 million for over 50 years to produce 40,000 bbl/day. The gasifier will convert solid coal feedstock into synthesis gas (primarily a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, commonly referred to as "syngas"). The syngas will be further processed into liquids, with a planned emphasis on low-sulphur, high-cetane diesel, but also co-produce naphtha. This part of the project will also use established technology which is commonly referred to as coal to liquids, or CTL, and has been commercially employed in this way for more than 30 years.
Gasification allows for the removal of harmful contaminants from the coal, which makes this an environmentally responsible process for producing cleaner energy. The Alberta Energy Research Institute has stated, "Gasification is, by far, the cleanest coal/coke conversion technology." With gasification combined with CO2 sequestration, this project becomes an environmentally attractive energy solution for the province.
The markets for the key outputs, diesel, naphtha and CO2, located within the province of Alberta, are well developed, and are expected to experience continued growth.
The high-cetane, low-sulphur diesel provides Edmonton area or other upgraders and refineries with an opportunity to blend the Fox Creek diesel product with lower-quality diesel thereby increasing the volume and average value of diesel products.
Naphtha is used in the oil sands industry as a diluent for bitumen. Addition of diluent assists in making the bitumen transportable in common-carrier pipelines. The current tight supply of this commodity is already fostering plans for offshore imports, and demand for naphtha will continue to grow as oil sands production increases.
The gasification process also has the ability to capture a relatively pure stream of CO2 suitable for sequestration or EOR opportunities in the local area.
The electrical power produced from the project is expected to meet the power requirements needed to run the coal mine and CTL operations. Surplus power, if any generated, will be marketed in Alberta through the existing electrical grid system.
The project is expected to meet or exceed all applicable existing Alberta and federal environmental standards. Progressive land reclamation activities will be carried out closely behind active mine operations to ensure that surface disturbance associated with the development is kept to a minimum.
Carbon dioxide sequestration
One of the main advantages of the gasification process is the ability to capture the CO2 produced in a relatively pure, sometimes called "capture ready" form, and Alter NRG intends to capture approximately 85 per cent of the project CO2 produced. Alberta has undertaken a number of studies to further understand how industries can capture and store CO2 in deep saline aquifers or use it in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). EOR has been identified as a means to not only store CO2 emissions but also as a potential value-added product. Recently, the Alberta government has announced a $2-billion fund to advance projects that include CO2 capture and EOR which illustrates the government initiative behind this type of project.
Alter NRG has undertaken an assessment of oil pools that would be amenable to use CO2 for EOR within a 100 km (65-mile) radius of the project. The criteria used in the assessment to determine EOR amenable pools included specific reservoir characteristics such as depth and original oil in place (OOIP). The 100 km (65-mile) radius was used to reduce the scope and cost of pipelining to suitable sites.
Based on these criteria, a total of 30 pools was identified that are suitable for EOR, with OOIP of 7,642 million barrels of oil, and ability to store over 228 million tonnes of CO2. Alter NRG estimates that total CO2 required for EOR in these 30 pools will amount to an average demand of approximately 27,000 tonnes/day over the economic life of the pools (around 20 to 30 years). This is somewhat more than the project will produce during that period, and the project can provide a preferred source of CO2 to the oil producers in the area.
Project time frame
Engineering and environmental studies are planned to be carried out for the remainder of 2008 and all of 2009. These studies will form the basis of the environmental impact assessment for the project. Submission of the project regulatory application is targeted for the end of 2009. It is anticipated that submission of the application will be followed by an 18-month regulatory review period. Construction will begin soon after receipt of all necessary approvals.
Alter NRG plans to start up mining operations by the fall of 2013 to prebuild coal supply for start-up of the CTL plant in early 2014. The CTL plant will require a longer engineering design and construction period than the mine.
The company initiated a strategic partner selection process in early 2008 and expects to provide further details on the development pathway and financing plans at the conclusion of the process in the later part of 2008.
We seek Safe Harbor.
Alberta to bury carbon, and its history
Mark Milke, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Karl Marx famously said that history repeats itself, "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." It's rare that one can apply the words of Marx to the Progressive Conservative government in Alberta, but the province's recent announcement that it will spend $2-billion to capture and force carbon emissions underground -- the "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) project -- provides just such an opportunity.
Forget for a moment that the Alberta government's assumption that humans are responsible for global warming might be on the verge of being downgraded, revised or even discredited. As Lawrence Solomon has chronicled in these pages over two years and in his new book, The Deniers, the world's top scientists have a plethora of informed opinion on the subject: They range from the possibility that humans caused a modest and beneficial rise in temperatures to the possibility that the Earth may have already entered a significant cooling phase similar to the last Little Ice Age.
Even if Alberta's Tories don't wish to engage in the battle of scientific nuance, the farce in spending $2-billion to capture and store carbon emissions underground is four-fold.
First, it was only last autumn that the new Premier, Ed Stelmach, decided Albertans had not received their "fair share" from energy companies and their shareholders (the proper way to describe the government's attack on existing royalty agreements). The Stelmach government arbitrarily hiked royalties on oil and natural gas by $1.4-billion.
Now the same Premier, party and government will use tax dollars to pay the $2-billion cost of capturing and storing carbon emissions. Regardless of the merits of such a plan, if the Tories were serious about cutting back on Alberta's carbon emissions, they wouldn't provide this weird incentive. Apparently companies need not worry overmuch about carbon emissions as taxpayers will foot the bill to bury whatever carbon emissions the industry can produce.
A second folly in the Alberta government's approach is that it has signalled it is in a panic, such as when in its news release it notes that it "has issued a request for expressions of interest to begin identifying those CCS proposals with the greatest potential of being built quickly."
Think about this announcement from the perspective of an enterprising company which now knows the Tories are in a hurry to look good on this file. Perhaps companies capable of burying carbon will propose cost-effective projects to the province. Or perhaps they will identify a desperate government and tailor their own carbon capture and storage proposals to extract maximum public cash from politicians who are in a hurry to make a good impression.
In addition to that recklessness, Alberta's unemployment rate is scraping around an all-time low. And now the provincial government wants to spend $2-billion on a major capital project (and another $2-billion on extra mass transit over the next several years, also announced recently).
It is not clear where Alberta's government intends to find the workers who might construct $4-billion in new public sector projects, but it's not difficult to see that the province's plan will put upward price pressure on all other infrastructure projects, public and private.
All of those reasons call into question the wisdom of Alberta's plan to capture and store carbon emissions. But the true folly and why Alberta's government is about to repeat history as farce a la Marx is that the same government once before spent over $2-billion in a misguided effort to deal with a then pressing issue: unemployment.
Back in the early 1980s, Alberta's Tories lent money and guaranteed loans to a variety of private sector companies in a Sisyphean effort to roll back unemployment and diversify Alberta's economy. But the effort, doomed as corporate welfare always is, only produced a huge bill for Alberta's taxpayers as companies anyway cratered and couldn't repay their government-backed loans.
The invoices for the public policy experiment appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The fiscal wrecks included an $81-million loss because of a Syncrude loan, a $199-million hit due to backstopping for a forestry company, a $410-million bath thanks to a government-backed waste treatment plant in northern Alberta, $209-million gone because of Peter Pocklington's money-losing Gainers meat packing plant in Edmonton and the whopping $646-million loss incurred on behalf of a 1980s-era high-tech company, Novatel.
Those experiments and other Alberta government loans and guarantees eventually amounted to a total $2.3-billion loss to the provincial treasury by the early 1990s.
The issues faced by a government change from one decade to the next but it appears the policy response is often the same. In the case of Alberta, the politicians are about to repeat history to the sum of at least $2-billion.
Carbon-capture plan reeks of dirty money
Former premier Getty attempts to grab subsidies
D. Braid
The Edmonton Journal
Monday, July 14, 2008
Right from the first whiff of the $2-billion plan to bury carbon, it looked like a potential gravy train for Tories all over the province.
And now one of the first applicants steps up like something from a political cartoon -- former premier Don Getty, no less, who is "thrilled" with the program and says his company will definitely apply for a subsidy.
That's our beloved Alberta, folks. There isn't another province where an ex-premier would even consider applying. Here, they do it proudly.
Next thing, Ralph Klein will be applying to sequester carbon in beer kegs under the old St. Louis hotel site, where so many ancient belches need a decent burial.
Capital Reserve Canada Ltd., which Getty chairs and partly owns, bought rights to an old chemical plant site that carved out salt caves by making brine.
Salt caves are supposed to be good at burying carbon -- 113 million tonnes, in Getty's plan. But some of the locals would like to run him off with pitchforks.
After hearing Thursday that Getty's company will apply for subsidies, local dentist and community activist Anil Shapka said, "That just makes me want to throw up.
"Having a private company with political ties and no experience come in first, some red flags have to go up.
"We've been alarmed about this for months. There was money allocated for carbon sequestration in the federal green plan. Now the province is throwing more money in the pot.
"I hope the public interest will come into play, and the money will be awarded to the best applicants. I don't think Getty's company could do it."
The old chemical plant and caves are located about 10 minutes from Two Hills, a little community 110 kilometres east of Edmonton.
It's in the valley of the North Saskatchewan River; and that has some local people thinking of a most unlikely locale, Cameroon in Africa.
On Aug. 12, 1986, a mixture of carbon dioxide and water droplets exploded from Lake Nyos in the African nation. It killed 1,700 people as well as thousands of animals.
Carbon dioxide is non-toxic but heavier than air, so it simply displaced oxygen and suffocated the victims.
The cause was natural, although still not entirely clear. But the conjunction of low-lying land with carbon dioxide proved disastrous.
All this was discussed in worried tones at a community meeting in February, after Getty's plan became public.
"The river's the low point," Shapka said.
"The most practical way to get the carbon dioxide here would be a pipeline. And if there was a leak, there would obviously be some threat to people living along the valley."
Albertans live daily with worse things, including the threat of deadly hydrogen sulphide leaks. But the alarm in Two Hills and nearby St. Paul show that even carbon projects can provoke a powerful response.
Remarkably, the government says it won't even want the subsidy money back from companies it supports. Getty, to his credit, at least says his company would return any kick-start money.
Here in Calgary, meanwhile, we have to wonder about a government that's ready to spend $2 billion burying carbon, but is now cutting back on beds for the new south hospital.
dbraid@shaw.ca
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
......."The system will have a design capacity of 25,000 tonnes per day with the initial throughput planned at 5,000 tonnes per day.
<<
The Enhance CO(2) Pipeline System will consist of:
- drying and compression facilities at the north end in the Heartland
Industrial Region on the Agrium and North West Upgrader sites, which
will process the CO(2) that will be collected and bring the product
up to pipeline specifications;
- a pump station east of Fort Saskatchewan in the Heartland Industrial
Region, to be called the Elk Island Pump Station, that will boost
pressure on the pipeline system;
- the pipeline operations and control centre located at the Elk Island
Pump Station;
- receipt facilities at the south end of the system near Clive, which
will allow distribution of the CO(2) to the conventional oil and gas
fields in the area; and
- a high vapour pressure (HVP) pipeline between the source and the
delivery point, connecting the north and south facilities.
>>
Enhance anticipates regulatory applications for the proposed project to be completed by spring of 2009, and depending on the timing of regulatory approval, construction is expected by the end of 2009, with operational startup in 2011. ......"
http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=85361359
Calgary firm plans province's first carbon-dioxide pipeline
$300M commercial project to link Edmonton upgraders with old oilfields in southwest Alberta
Shaun Polczer
Calgary Herald
Friday, July 11, 2008
CALGARY - A small Calgary company unveiled plans on Thursday for Alberta's first carbon dioxide pipeline to increase oil production from old oilfields.
Enhance Energy Inc., a private firm that specializes in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), is proposing to build the system to link upgraders and processing facilities around Edmonton to old fields in the south-central area of the province to increase oil production.
When it's operational in 2011, the system will remove 5,000 tonnes of CO2 gas per day that would have been vented into the atmosphere -- the equivalent of taking 1.6 million cars off the road. Eventually, the line will be expanded to 25,000 tonnes per day, or nearly 10 million tonnes per year.
"Besides the enormous environmental benefits to Alberta, the pipeline system will benefit Albertans through the jobs it will provide and the incremental royalties and taxes it will generate through enhanced oil recovery," said company president Susan Cole.
Cole previously helped PanCanadian Petroleum design the pipeline that feeds the Weyburn CO2 flood, which is one of only four commercial sequestration projects in the world.
Cole says Weyburn is roughly similar to what Enhance is proposing with its project. "All we're doing is doing it here in Alberta," she said.
Although it's not the first time a CO2 pipeline has been proposed, it's the first time anybody has come forward with a commercial project.
Costs have not been finalized, but Cole said the company has a preliminary estimate of $300 million for a 240-kilometre line.
It has signed North West Upgrading and Agrium Inc. on as CO2 suppliers. The gas will be used in a joint venture with Fairborne Energy to increase production at Clive, an aging field southeast of Edmonton.
By injecting CO2 into a pair of reservoirs originally discovered in the 1960s, the partnership hopes to recover 24 million barrels that would have otherwise stayed in the ground.
In 2004, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), along with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), identified 15 old or abandoned oil fields in Alberta with potential to recover nearly 16 billion additional barrels.
Among them include "crown jewels" like Redwater, Pembina, Judy Creek and Turner Valley.
The Turner Valley field, for instance, was discovered in 1914 and has only given up 150 million barrels of its original billion-barrel endowment -- less than 15 per cent of the original oil in place.
In an interview, Cole said the potential for future recovery from old fields is huge, and described the Fairborne deal as "essentially a farm-in" arrangement to share the incremental volumes at Clive. In addition, Enhance owns a second field at Bashaw, which was also discovered almost half a century ago.
Contracts for the design and management of the pipeline portion have been awarded to Sunstone Projects Ltd. Other technical and support contracts have been awarded to Synergas Technologies Inc. for facilities engineering, Scott Land and Lease as land agent, and Worley Parsons for environmental services.
"It's the first world-scale project for dealing with greenhouse gases, and we're glad it's happening here in Alberta," said Sunstone president Barry Bauhuis.
Earlier this week, the Alberta government committed $2 billion for initiatives to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from industrial activities. Although Enhance has been working on the initiative for three years, Cole said the program would attract investment needed to advance future sequestration initiatives.
"We do believe the announcement is very timely. It provides tremendous momentum for this project."
Likewise, Shell Canada is moving ahead with its Quest project to capture and store carbon gas from the Scotford upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan.
Spokeswoman Janet Annesley, who indicated that the plan has been in the works since 2006, said the project will capture up to one million tonnes of greenhouse gas per year that could be stored underground or used for oil recovery.
Although the work is in preliminary stages, she said it could be up and running by 2015.
"We view carbon capture and storage as a key part of our CO2 mitigation strategy. Our view is that this is a challenge Shell needs to address."
Shell also welcomes the government announcement, but Annesley said it's too early to determine if the company will directly benefit. She hopes it will attract investment and speed up existing projects.
"Shell's view is that the challenge cannot be met by any one company or industry alone."
spolczer@theherald.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Wavefront ready to flow revenue
Unique oilpatch technology promises to recover crude from older wells
Gary Lamphier
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Brett Davidson, CEO of Edmonton-based Wavefront Energy and Environmental Services
CREDIT: Rick MacWilliam, The Journal
Brett Davidson, CEO of Edmonton-based Wavefront Energy and Environmental Services
EDMONTON - For a junior technology outfit based in the nondescript industrial 'burbs of west Edmonton, Wavefront Energy & Environmental Services has attracted some impressive financial backers.
The heavyweights include Sprott Asset Management -- led by hot shot Bay Street money manager Eric Sprott -- as well as Boston-based Wellington Asset Management and San Francisco's Passport Capital, among others.
Given Wavefront's modest market cap -- $190 million, as of Wednesday's close on the TSX Venture Exchange -- and its steady operating losses, one might wonder why the Big Boys have piled into such a tiny, obscure sandbox.
The answer? Wavefront's patented Powerwave technology, which is finally being rolled out on a limited commercial basis after years of field trials. If it's successful, it promises to enable energy producers to boost oil flows from mature reservoirs, where billions of barrels of crude lie stranded.
With oil prices at $135 US a barrel and Peak Oil theorists insisting that a new era of chronic energy shortages is upon us, the potential payoff for producers -- and Wavefront -- is obvious.
Not only might Wavefront's technology yield upfront gains in output, cash flow and profits, thus justifying the upfront capital cost, but it could significantly extend the life of thousands of aging fields, enhancing their value.
"Wavefront's technology sounded quite plausible to us, and their preliminary work suggested it did in fact increase (well) productivity," says Sprott, an iconic Bay Street player who has gained fame and fortune in recent years by astutely riding the boom in commodity prices.
"That's so valuable today, at $135 a barrel, that you'd think their technology could be taken up quite quickly by the industry. Now, it's a bit of a bet, because there's really no financial metric that says their stock is cheap," he notes, with Wavefront continuing to pile up losses.
"But anybody who can develop technology to extract more hydrocarbons is going to have a very valuable technology. We won't know for sure until they start getting some contracts that really produce earnings, but it looks like the technology is beginning to be accepted."
Indeed, Powerwave has already been used in the field by EnCana, Penn West, Pengrowth, BP, Chevron and Apache, among others. It's also being marketed in the U.S. by Halliburton, the energy services giant.
But the number of firm commercial orders for Powerwave is still small, at just 85. Of that, only 24 systems have been installed to date.
Still, Wavefront CEO and co-founder Brett Davidson, who has spent the past decade developing Powerwave -- and its counterpart in the environmental services sector, Primawave -- says that's about to change.
"I think we're right at the cusp of that transition to being a fully commercial company. Our target this year is to have 100 tools licensed. Next year, we're trying to push that to 500. And in 2010, our goal is 1,000," he says.
"Now, it may seem like a large leap to go from 100 to 1,000, but if I look back to last October, we had only eight in the ground. Today we have 24 in the ground, and there's another 61 waiting to go in.
"So we've taken a large leap already."
Wavefront's existing 18 customers currently operate roughly 4,600 water injection wells, notes company director Walter Stelmaschuk, who previously served as chairman of Nisku-based NQL Drilling.
"So we'd expect to see a pretty quick jump once they place additional orders to network their fields," he says.
Powerwave is used in so-called injection wells, where water or carbon dioxide is forced downhole, creating pressure that frees up trapped crude. The patented system uses an intermittent fluid pressure pulse that allows for a more uniform injection of fluids throughout the reservoir.
This in turn yields higher production rates, extending the life of a field, and enhancing its value. In Texas, one recent field trial raised production rates from eight wells by 26 per cent. A similar project in Alberta initially raised output by 18 per cent. It then ramped up to 100 per cent, says Davidson.
Still, the installations to date have been small. To really wow the energy industry, and the investment community, Powerwave would have to be deployed on a far wider basis. And that's exactly what Davidson intends to do.
"If you look at the market opportunity Wavefront has, you're looking at essentially over 200,000 wells to inject fluid in North America. Roughly 167,000 are in the U.S., and 55,000 of those are in Texas alone," he says.
"And as reservoirs get more mature, they add more injection wells to bring up the pressure to push more oil. So the market actually grows, it doesn't contract," he notes.
"And what's unique about Wavefront is that outside of our product licencees, there's no one else in the world that does what we do. So it's a very good market opportunity for us."
The company expects to turn the financial corner in 2009, when it hopes to generate roughly $4 million in revenues. After that, after 10 long years of toil, Davidson sees paydirt.
glamphier@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Shell launches carbon-capture project
Announcement to cut emissions by one million tonnes starting in 2015 comes as Alberta touts $2-billion fund
NORVAL SCOTT
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
July 9, 2008 at 6:25 AM EDT
CALGARY — Royal Dutch Shell PLC has embarked on a major carbon-capture project to clean up its oil sands output on the same day the Alberta government created a $2-billion fund to promote just such solutions to the problem of its so-called dirty oil.
Shell, one of the world's largest energy companies and a major player in the oil sands, said yesterday it will begin testing ways to take carbon dioxide spewed from its Scotford Upgrader, near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and inject it safely back into saline aquifers in the ground. The upgrader takes tarry bitumen from the oil sands and processes it into a lighter synthetic crude.
The testing is to be the first step toward creating by 2015 one of Canada's largest carbon capture and storage projects so far, with the technology seen as key to preventing emissions in Alberta spiralling out of control as more crude production from the oil sands is brought on stream.
Separately yesterday, the Alberta government announced it's creating a $2-billion fund to advance carbon capture and storage, with the cash allocated to encourage large-scale projects like that being planned by Shell. The government also set aside a similar amount to promote public transit.
The province has faced a rising tide of criticism as it tries to bring more of its lucrative oil sands crude to market. According to some estimates, crude from the oil sands causes up to three times as much greenhouse gas to be emitted as conventional oil production, and activists across the world have increasingly turned their sights on the perceived negatives associated with development of the resource.
Shell's project, known as Quest, would be almost as large as the only other carbon capture project now operating in Canada and the first to deal with emissions from the oil sands. EnCana Corp.'s Weyburn project in Saskatchewan injects carbon dioxide into a conventional oil field.
Quest would reduce emissions from Shell's oil sands operations by one million tonnes a year beginning in 2015.
"The acceleration of carbon capture and storage is not a fantasy," said Dave Collyer, Shell's head of Canadian operations, in a press briefing. "This is a very important part of the solution to the climate change challenge."
Shell isn't yet sure what the project would cost. The Scotford mine and upgrader currently produces over 1.75 million tonnes a year of emissions, although that number will increase as expansions are brought on stream. ...............
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080709.wrshell09/BNStory/energy/home
Carbon capture plan lauded
Alberta commits $2 billion to new technologies
Geoffrey Scotton
Calgary Herald
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Alberta's oil and gas and electricity generation industries are welcoming the provincial government's announcement Tuesday it's earmarking $2 billion over five years to launch large-scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects with industry.
"The $2 billion we're investing is the largest amount dedicated to carbon capture and storage anywhere in the world," Premier Ed Stelmach said.
"It's a significant commitment. It's a significant commitment to one of the few technologies that's been identified as being able to make a substantial reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions," Stelmach added.
The government hopes to fund roughly five major CCS projects in conjunction with industry players that will have the effect of sequestering five million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by 2015. In 2006, Alberta produced 234 million tonnes of CO2, or roughly 32.5 per cent of the national total of 721 million tonnes.
"I see our members showing an interest in this," said David Pryce, vice-president for western Canada operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"One of the reason is the way the government has structured it; it's essentially competitive. If you want to take advantage of it, you've got to do it now."
CO2 is considered one of the more widespread and controllable of the so-called greenhouse gases, believed by many to be contributing to global warming.
Potential projects will be assessed by the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council, launched by Stelmach in April and headed by former Syncrude Canada Ltd. president Jim Carter.
"By the end of January we'll be in a position to award successful candidate proposals," said Carter, who noted the idea is intended to develop technology that can be used in other applications and work towards the province's goal of halving emissions by 2050.
"There's a lot of work to be done, but this is a tremendous initiative to get the ball rolling," he said. However, neither Stelmach nor Environment Minister Rob Renner could specify what proportion of Alberta's emissions five million tonnes might account for in 2015.
Epcor Utilities Inc. president and chief executive Don Lowry said his company is already working on projects that might be eligible for a portion of the funding, including a coal gasification pilot project and potentially, a major coal-fired generating addition at the Genesee Generating Station, known as Genesee Four.
"We could not be more pleased that we are seeing actions, not words, a stake in the ground and I think this accelerates concrete and steel hitting the turf and Alberta taking a leadership position," Lowry told the Herald from Edmonton.
Lowry suggested large-scale CCS for a major coal-fired generating plant will not be cheap and could push the price tag for a 450-megawatt plant from the current $1.6-billion price tag for the state-of-the-art Keephills Three to as high as $5 billion.
"If we step up to these, I dare say you're in the $3-billion to $5-billion range," said Lowry. "They are going to have to have syndicate-like funding where there's multiple partners."
Alberta's largest coal-fired power producer, TransAlta Corp. of Calgary, is also interested, said spokesman Michael Lawrence.
"For commercially viable CCS projects, you require a successful partnership between government and industry and today's announcement from Premier Stelmach certainly kick-starts that relationship and initiates real CO2 emission reductions," Lawrence said.
In theory, CCS is used to trap the carbon dioxide emissions from industry, machines or agriculture, which can then be compressed, transported via pipeline and injected into geological subterranean rock formations, where they remain and in some cases help to boost oil and gas production from the formations. In practice, much of the mechanics around CCS have yet to be perfected at any substantial scale.
Nonetheless, Stelmach argued CCS has great potential not just for the environment, but also for the economy.
Stelmach and Renner suggested a major focus of the government's CCS efforts will be on coal-fired electricity generation, the largest single source of CO2 in Alberta.
About 40 per cent of the province's CO2 production in 2006 came from all forms of oil and gas production, 23 per cent from electricity production, including gas-fired; 14 per cent from transportation, eight per cent from agriculture, six per cent from industrial sources and five per cent from residential origins.
gscotton@theherald.canwest.com
Alberta announces $4B climate plan
Jason Markusoff
edmontonjournal.com
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
EDMONTON - Premier Ed Stelmach announced $2 billion today for public transit and another $2 billion for capturing industrial greenhouse-gas emissions and storing them underground, as his Conservative government strives to prove its green credentials amid growing Canadian and international scrutiny.
Carbon capture and storage has formed the cornerstone of Alberta's climate-change strategy, although until now the government has done little to foster it, beyond setting up a task force. This investment is designed to spur three to five large-scale capture projects. In a news conference, Stelmach said this was the world's largest single investment in the widely touted technology.
The premier predicted that five million tonnes of climate-changing carbon dioxide from industry would be trapped underground - necessary to keep emissions from spiralling upwards as Alberta's oilsands and coal-power generation, its most-polluting industries, are set to expand rapidly.
The government expects energy companies to help pay for the vast, multibillion-dollar networks of pipelines, scrubbers and storage systems for carbon capture, but was vague today on how cost-sharing would occur.
The massive injection into public-transportation projects will be open to all bids from municipal governments, and is designed to help cities expand light-rail lines, help start inter-city train projects, purchase buses and develop park-and-ride lots.
jmarkusoff@thejournal.canwest.com
© Edmonton Journal 2008
Britain plans CO2-capture plant
From Herald News Services
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Britain was on Monday announcing a short list of firms in a tender to build the world's first commercial-scale power plant to burn coal and gas without adding to global warming.
Carbon capture and storage promises a technological solution to soaring emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning power plants -- but with strings attached.
"It is the great panacea. It would mean not having to do the hard things like changing the way we live," said Michael Grubb, chief economist at Britain's Carbon Trust.
"The trouble is that while everybody says it can be done, no one has yet done it. There are very big companies out there with very deep pockets but even they are not doing it."
The winner of the British competition will get help from the government, likely to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
Q&A What is carbon capture and storage and how does it work?
Compiled by Roger East
The Guardian
What does carbon capture and storage (CCS) involve?
Separating out the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by power stations (or industrial processes), and transporting it to a place for indefinite storage. In the energy producing sector, the purpose of CCS is to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuel by some 85-90%, which many see as the only way to avert devastating climate impacts from coal-fired electricity production.
Does the technology exist?
Different stages have been used or demonstrated but the whole process has not yet been applied in power stations on a commercial scale.
So what's "carbon capture ready"?
It is an imprecise term used to describe the design of new power station projects, especially coal-fired ones, without which they would stand no real chance of approval in the UK. It should mean they have space and access for retrofitting carbon capture equipment once it is developed, plus access to suitable geological storage underground, and a feasibility study giving reasonable confidence that it would work. Critics say that in the absence of legislation to make it compulsory there is no obligation to retrofit CCS techology - and that it encourages a "build now, capture later" mindset that is extremely risky while the technology remains unproven.
Why might an operator not want to retrofit later?
It entails a capital expense and high running costs. Carbon capture could well absorb a quarter of the power station's generating capacity. Uncertainty about this and other costs is one of the big question marks over the viability of the whole CCS enterprise. Current estimates suggest costs of between 40 and 90 euros (£30-70) per tonne for capture, plus the (lesser) costs of transport and storage.
Can you take out carbon dioxide from the waste gas of a power station as you do for other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide?
Yes, this is what happens in one form of the technology known as "post-combustion". Using known industrial techniques, flue gases are diverted through an absorber, where the CO2 is taken up by a solvent. The next stage, heating the CO2-rich solvent to 120C in a reformer, releases the CO2 for capture.
What are the other methods of removing CO2 from a power station?
Instead of removing the CO2 after the fuel has been burnt, the fuel is turned into a gas made of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This gas, known as syngas, is combined with steam to turn the carbon monoxide into CO2, which can be extracted and captured before the remaining hydrogen is burned to produce electricity. This method is known as pre-combustion.
Are there any other methods?
There is a third technology called oxyfuel where the fossil fuel is burned in 95% pure oxygen instead of in air, resulting in a flue gas that consists of high CO2 concentrations and water vapour. The two can be separated just by cooling and the CO2 is then condensed and compressed for storage.
Once you've captured your CO2, how do you transport it?
Pipelines are generally the cheapest way, with costs depending on distance and the availability of suitable existing networks. However, there are questions that need to be answered about how the pipelines are going to work.
What are the main prospective storage sites?
The most important potential sites for storage are saline acquifers deep underground - porous rock formations that contain saline water. Before it is injected, the CO2 is compressed to a dense fluid. This density increases as the CO2 goes deeper underground until, below 800m, it becomes so dense that it should not rise to the surface. Other options for storage are depleted gas and oil reservoirs and seams of coal that are no longer mined.
What makes a good site?
To safely store CO2, a site needs three things: enough storage space, a layer of rock, such as clay stone or shale, that seals the site and prevents gas from rising to the surface and a sufficiently stable geological environment. Under such conditions the UN's scientific expert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers it likely that 99% of the CO2 will still remain safely sequestered after 1,000 years.
Are there other storage alternatives?
Disposal deep at sea has been considered, because of the heaviness of CO2 at great depths, but this has been largely ruled out because of concerns about CO2 changing the ocean environment.
Is there enough space underground to store all the CO2
There is an estimated capacity of at least 2,000 gigatonnes of CO2, or 65 years of man-made global emissions at the rate the world is currently putting CO2 into the atmosphere.
What happens if we run out of storage space?
CCS is not a licence to continue business as usual. Its proponents say CCS simply buys us time to switch to a more sustainable energy path, investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency to bring CO2 emissions down.
Private eh?
Proving tough to find anything liquid in this field so far.
Ron gave a nice plug for NRG yesterday
Words to the effect he expects it to go significantly higher in the future.
He didn't say the same about potash jrs.
Penn West seeks CO2 from Sask. power plant
Jeffrey Jones
Reuters
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
CALGARY - Penn West Energy Trust has started talks aimed at securing carbon dioxide from a government-funded carbon-capture project to boost output at oilfields in southeastern Saskatchewan, its chief executive said Monday.
Penn West, Canada's largest conventional oil and gas trust, has several small oil pools near SaskPower's Boundary Dam coal-fired power plant, site of a $1.4-billion carbon capture proposal, which CEO Bill Andrew said were well-suited for the CO2.
In February, the Saskatchewan government moved ahead with plans to refit the power plant with CO2 equipment after Ottawa committed $240 million.
"We've been talking with SaskPower and we've been talking with the government of Saskatchewan. They are not formal talks, but we've certainly had discussions with them," Andrew said in an interview after Penn West's annual meeting. "We believe we've got a place to put the CO2."
The oilfields produce about 15,000 barrels a day.
The site is not far from EnCana Corp.'s Weyburn oilfield, where the company bolsters oil output with carbon dioxide piped from a North Dakota coal gasification plant.
Andrew has long been a proponent of piping the gas linked to global warming from industrial emitters, like electricity, petrochemical and oilsands plants, to be injected into old oilfields. The gas increases pressure, lifting output.
He has been frustrated in the past by the slow pace of proposals in Alberta, although he said Monday that progress is now being made there too.
In Saskatchewan, costs will likely have to be shared by his firm, governments and SaskPower, which is owned by the province, he said. The power utility has said it could cost about $1 billion to refit the Boundary Dam plant and $400 million to build pipelines.
"In the case of emitter, they've got a problem with CO2 so they've got to put some cash on the table to address that. In our case, on the (enhanced oil recovery) side, we want to pay to get some upside on the oil -- we don't expect it for nothing," Andrew said.
"The gap -- if there is any -- I think it's got to be maybe in the form of tax incentives. That's basically the way oilsands (development) worked."
Canadian governments are looking at carbon capture and storage projects as a way to meet emission reduction targets with minimal impact on economic growth.
Early this year, Alberta's government said it hoped the emerging technology will make up 70 per cent of its emission reduction goal by 2050.
Andrew said his efforts in Canada's biggest oil-producing province are starting to gain traction.
"Alberta's moving a lot faster than it was. There's been a climate council announced. I'm on the council and we're very active looking for a solution with many players," he said.
The group includes representatives from industry, government and environmental groups.
One hurdle in Alberta is the surging cost amid the province's economic boom, which mirrors conditions in all sectors, he said.
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
NRG monster!!!!!!!!!
Clean coal project needs buyer for C02
Bruce Johnstone
The Leader-Post
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
SaskPower's proposed $1.4-billion clean coal project at Boundary Dam Power Station at Estevan needs a buyer for the captured carbon dioxide to be economically viable, according to the project's deputy manager.
Doug Daverne told a Saskatchewan Mining Week breakfast meeting Tuesday that oil industry buy-in is critical to the project, which would be the first commercial-scale, post-combustion, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration project in the world.
"We don't think (the carbon capture and sequestration project) is economic right now unless we can receive some value from the CO2 created for EOR (enhanced oil recovery),'' Daverne said.
Of course, that could change if rising electricity and natural gas prices, carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems make producing greenhouse gas emissions prohibitively expensive, he added.
In March, the federal government committed $240 million to SaskPower's proposed CCS project, which would involve retrofitting Unit 3 at Boundary Dam station to capture one million tonnes a year of CO2.
The captured CO2 would be compressed and injected in liquid form into oil reservoirs, which could then produce up to three million barrels of oil per year.
"With the carbon capture concept, we capture that CO2 and liquefy it and put it down into spent oil reservoirs,'' Daverne said. "As a result of that, additional oil is produced.
"That's what the Boundary Dam demonstration project is about ... That's what we think needs to be in place for carbon capture and sequestration to be cost-competitive."
Daverne, a senior engineer with SaskPower, explained the economics of carbon capture and storage to the meeting jointly sponsored by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.
Daverne said SaskPower's current benchmark for cost-effective electricity generation is the natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant. SaskPower is currently building 400 megawatts of electrical generation using NGCC plants at a cost of $525 million for operation starting in 2010.
The Shand 2 clean coal project, which utilizes the "oxyfuel" process that uses oxygen to remove CO2 from the flue gas produced from coal burning, was shelved last fall by SaskPower due to its projected $3.8 billion cost.
Another concern SaskPower had was that the amount of CO2 produced by the 300 MW Shand 2 plant might be more than the oil industry could use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects, further escalating the cost of the project.
Daverne said the Boundary Dam demonstration project would be built in two phases, the first to be completed in 2013, which will reduce Unit 3's generating capacity from 139 MW to 120 MW and reduce the unit's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to that of a conventional NGCC plant.
The second phase to be completed by 2015 would further reduce the unit's output to 100 MW and reduce GHG and other emissions to "near zero.''
By phasing in the project, SaskPower would reduce the economic risk of bringing on all the captured CO2 onto the market at once. Oil companies would also have time to invest in the $400 million of infrastructure required to make use of one million tonnes of captured CO2 per year.
"They have significant capital costs as well. It's not simply a case of them buying CO2 and putting it into the ground.
"We need to get some recovery of dollars for the CO2 to make the electricity side of this (project) economic,'' Daverne added. "We think there is enough value between the EOR side and the plant side to make those (carbon capture costs) balance out."
As importantly, SaskPower would extend the life of Unit 3, which was built in the late 1960s and due for retirement in 2013., for another 20 or 30 years.
Agrium Inc (C-AGU) - News Release
Agrium signs deal to supply CO2 to Enhance Energy
2008-05-27 05:09 MT - News Release
Shares issued 157,888,338
AGU Close 2008-05-26 C$ 83.82
Mr. Richard Downey reports
ENHANCE ENERGY AND AGRIUM SIGN CO2 AGREEMENT
Agrium Inc. and Enhance Energy Inc., a Calgary-based energy company specializing in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), have signed an agreement for Agrium to supply CO2 to Enhance's EOR projects.
All amounts are stated in United States dollars.
The supply of CO2 will be used in several EOR projects under development by Enhance Energy, including the previously announced joint venture with Fairborne Energy Ltd. for the Clive, Alta., project.
"We are proud to partner with Agrium for our CO2 supply, which enables us to produce more oil while at the same time safely sequestering CO2 that would otherwise have been emitted to the atmosphere," said Susan Cole, president of Enhance Energy Inc. "By implementing the first major EOR projects in Alberta, we believe Enhance will lead the way for other projects that will become more viable because of our CO2 pipeline system."
Once Enhance's pipeline project comes on stream, expected in 2011, Agrium will begin to supply CO2 to the project, thereby significantly reducing Agrium's CO2 emissions. Agrium has been supplying CO2 for enhanced oil recovery for many years from its Borger, Tex., nitrogen facility.
"We recognize the potential of this project and look forward to working with Enhance to make a significant reduction in Alberta's greenhouse gas emissions," said Ron Wilkinson, senior vice-president of Agrium and president of Agrium Wholesale.
We seek Safe Harbor.
High cost to rapid emissions cuts
Expert predicts 50% jump in price of power generation
Gordon Jaremko
The Edmonton Journal
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The cost of generating electricity will jump by 50 per cent if the province orders Alberta coal-fired power stations to stop venting carbon dioxide too quickly, a senior greenhouse gas cleanup specialist predicted Saturday.
Gradual action to install new equipment and replace old plants will be required to keep energy prices reasonable by giving industry time to hit emissions reduction targets, said Bill Gunter, the Alberta Research Council's principal carbon capture and storage scientist.
"It's something we have to deal with -- it won't go away," he told teachers and professors attending a national chemistry conference and exhibition being held in Edmonton.
"Alberta has overtaken Ontario as the emissions capital of Canada."
Industrial expansion that includes the oilsands, population growth and reliance on coal-fired plants for more than half the province's electricity supplies have inflated annual Alberta carbon-dioxide emissions to 224 million tonnes, Gunter reported. Ontario ranks second at 206 million tonnes.
In the Alberta Industrial Heartland district northeast of Edmonton, carbon dioxide emissions will roughly triple to 65,000 tonnes a day by 2015 if all current oilsands projects are built on announced schedules, Gunter told the conference, which ends Wednesday.
"Capture (of greenhouse gas waste) is a very expensive process. There is a clear need for technology to be advanced."
Separating carbon dioxide, now thinly mixed with other materials in coal-plant exhaust, by adding new collection equipment to existing operations would cost $30 to $50 per tonne of emissions cut, he estimated.
Compressing greenhouse gas waste into a form fit for shipping would be the cheapest part of industrial cleanups, at eight to 10 cents per tonne, he said.
Pipeline delivery to disposal sites is expected to cost 70 cents to $4 per tonne of compressed carbon dioxide. Another $2 to $8 a tonne would cover injections into permanent underground storage, Gunter said.
The next generation of coal-fired power stations can cut the cost of these emission reductions by following designs that include changing how they use their fuel, Gunter said.
Building "gasification" into new plants, which extracts clean fuel gas from coal instead of burning it as a solid, enables low-cost collection of waste carbon dioxide as a concentrated byproduct, he said.
The next bitumen upgrader plants, led by the Long Lake project nearing completion south of Fort McMurray, could also reduce emissions because they replace expensive natural gas with fuel taken out of leftover petroleum coke and asphalt, he said.
His forecast of sharply rising electricity costs if the province ordered a rapid environmental cleanup was not a precise prediction of monthly consumer bills.
Retail power prices include long-distance transmission charges, local distribution expenses and service fees.
But his expectations echoed recent warnings against hasty action by Epcor Utilities president Don Lowry and his TransAlta Corp. counterpart Steve Snyder at their companies' respective annual general meetings this month.
Lowry said there are economic risks to environmental policies that demand the rapid use of untried greenhouse gas capture and storage systems.
"It's not like shooting for the moon. It's like shooting for Mars," said Lowry, a member of a provincial carbon capture and storage development council.
"To meet growing demand for electricity, investments in transformative technology must be made, and public policy must take scale, timelines and cost into careful consideration."
Snyder said TransAlta has teamed up with a French firm to try adding new cleanup technology to one of its power stations in the Wabamun area west of Edmonton.
A provincial green plan relies on a disposal system to make 70 per cent of the promised 200 million tonnes in cuts from projected annual Alberta emissions by 2050.
A national industry task force, appointed by Stelmach and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has called for immediate creation of a $2-billion federal and provincial fund for government contributions to carbon capture and storage projects.
gjaremko@thejournal.canwest.comc
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Shell joins carbon project
From Herald News Services
Published: Friday, May 16, 2008
Environment - Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, has joined the International Energy Agency's carbon capture-and-storage research project in Canada.
Shell agreed to co-sponsor the research along with Chevron Corp., OMV AG, Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Apache Corp. and EnCana Corp., The Hague-based company said Thursday.
The $80-million IEA study is one of the world's largest carbon-storage research projects.
You will never make it as a board Nazi lol
CRSVF 2 mil cross last week at 1.5 cents now bid 3 cents
grabbed some at .02 for a big bounce on Getty
Wellington got a hard on for it the last 10 minutes
Is this nrg?
Top 15 holdings of Acuity Clean Environment Equity Fund as of March 31, 2008
5N Plus VNP-T 12.44 3.90 13.46 103.7 0.0 56.3 3.0
Canadian Hydro Developers KHD-T 5.88 4.85 8.01 98.0 0.0 -8.1 2.8
Praxair PX-N 93.10 63.95 94.48 25.7 1.6 5.0 2.6
Harsco Corp. HSC-N 60.49 46.10 66.51 20.0 1.3 -5.6 2.5
Hanwei Energy Services HE-T 4.37 2.70 7.45 19.9 0.0 -19.8 2.5
Alter Nrg Corp. NRG-X 4.05 1.90 5.10 0.0 0.0 24.6 2.5
Universal Energy Group Ltd. UEG-T 15.25 13.05 22.21 0.0 0.0 -16.7 2.5
Petrobank Energy and Resources PBG-T 53.06 22.01 63.03 49.6 0.0 -8.9 2.2
Albemarle ALB-N 37.63 31.99 48.84 15.7 1.3 -8.8 2.1
AltaGas Income Trust ALA.UN-T 24.44 22.76 28.75 14.0 8.6 -7.6 2.0
Foster Wheeler FWLT-Q 68.48 33.27 85.65 25.2 0.0 -11.7 2.0
Itron Inc. ITRI-Q 100.18 64.57 112.92 36.0 0.0 4.4 1.9
Suncor Energy SU-T 121.07 81.83 122.20 19.7 0.3 12.2 1.9
TransCanada Corp. TRP-T 36.95 35.43 40.97 20.8 3.9 -8.9 1.9
Neo Material Technologies NEM-T 4.62 3.35 5.60 13.2 0.0 -8.0 1.8
Why?
There is CO2 capture as part of their program
... edit wrong board u can delete this post
CO2 and coal-how can it miss?
......The Fox Creek coal resource is the cornerstone of the company's planned Fox Creek polygeneration facility, which is anticipated to produce sulphur-free diesel, naphtha, power, carbon dioxide and various chemicals, and is expected to be operational between 2013 and 2015. The planned polygeneration facility intends to capture the carbon dioxide and sell it to nearby oil fields for use in their enhanced oil field recovery projects. The coal mining costs and reserve information are consistent with the economic modelling done by the company to date. The Fox Creek polygeneration facility has commenced its regulatory process preparation and core hole drilling program to provide data for detailed engineering design, with the anticipation of filing its preliminary disclosure document in 2008. The regulatory process, in conjunction with detailed engineering, is expected to take approximately three to four years followed by an approximately two- to three-year construction period. The company will be soliciting input from potential strategic partners over the next 12 months to further determine the optimal project parameters, including the anticipated production output and project structure.........
Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Projects
http://sequestration.mit.edu/tools/projects/index.html
Carbon Dioxide Storage Only Projects
http://sequestration.mit.edu/tools/projects/storage_only.html
M.I.T.
http://sequestration.mit.edu/links/index.html
DOE Technology Monitors CO2 Injection in Australian Gas Field
CSLF Project Demonstrates Unique Carbon Sequestration Technologies
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Australia has launched the first carbon sequestration project in the southern hemisphere with the help of technology developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Otway Basin Pilot Project will inject and monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) in a depleted gas field in southeastern Australia to demonstrate the feasibility of storing the greenhouse gas in the Waarre Formation of the Otway Basin, and similar formations worldwide, to fight global climate change.
The $36 million Otway Basin Pilot Project is one of 19 sequestration projects endorsed by the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), an international climate change initiative that focuses on the development of technologies to cost-effectively capture and sequester CO2. The project is directed by Australia's Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC). Project partners include DOE and a variety of other public and private organizations.
Up to 100,000 metric tons of CO2 will be injected more than a mile beneath the earth's surface. A team of Australian, American, and other international researchers will monitor the storage reservoir before, during, and after the CO2 is injected. The injection process will span 1 to 2 years, while monitoring and modeling activities will last for several years beyond that.
The Otway Basin is an excellent test site because it has a large source of natural CO2 and an abundance of now-depleted gas fields containing rock formations with a geologic history of storage permanence. CO2 will be produced from an existing well, then compressed to a supercritical state to more efficiently move and store it at a final location.
Once the CO2 has been transported and injected, comprehensive monitoring and verification will take place to demonstrate that long-term storage is viable. According to CO2CRC Chief Executive Peter Cook, "A key feature of the project is that it is one of the world's most comprehensive subsurface carbon dioxide monitoring programs ever undertaken, and it was designed, developed and implemented by CO2CRC researchers from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada."
In research sponsored by the Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed cutting-edge instrumentation that will be used to track the CO2 plume during and after the injection. Sophisticated seismic techniques will provide data about the location, migration, and permanent storage of the CO2 plume, which will be more than a mile deep.
Remote sensing is just one of several monitoring techniques LBNL researchers will deploy from a toolbox of recent advancements. Another technique is a unique formation well sampling method that taps the reservoir and delivers fluid samples to the surface for determination of CO2 content and other geochemical analyses. Using geophysical, geochemical, and other reservoir data acquired during storage operations, the researchers will also be able to refine models to significantly increase the predictability of formations to permanently store CO2.
Lessons learned from the Otway project can be applied elsewhere in Australia, the United States, and worldwide. With support from NETL, LBNL researchers transfer sequestration technologies by participating in several international CO2 storage demonstrations on other continents, including CO2SINK near Berlin, Germany, and the commercial-scale CO2 storage operations at In Salah, Algeria.
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/press/2008/08009-Australian_CO2_Injection_Begins.html
CO2CRC Otway Project overview
An innovative, world-leading project is underway in south-western Victoria to demonstrate that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technically and environmentally safe way to make deep cuts into Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The CO2CRC Otway Project is the country’s first demonstration of the deep geological storage or geosequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most common greenhouse gas. The project provides technical information on geosequestration processes, technologies and monitoring and verification regimes that will
help inform public policy and industry decision-makers while also providing assurance to the community.
The project is of global significance because:
it is the world’s largest research and geosequestration demonstration project; about 100,000 tonnes of CO2 will be injected and stored deep underground; and
it includes an outstanding monitoring program, which international and national scientists believe to be the most comprehensive of its type in the world.
Lessons learned from the project, particularly from the comprehensive monitoring program, will be adopted by other geosequestration projects around the world.
http://www.co2crc.com.au/otway/
I gather down there they have a field which they need CO2 for flood.
Cheaper than recovery?
North Peace Energy loses $1.2-million in fiscal 2007
2008-04-08 07:54 MT - News Release
Mr. Louis Dufresne reports
NORTH PEACE ENERGY ANNOUNCES OPERATIONS UPDATE AND 2007 FINANCIAL RESULTS
North Peace Energy Corp. has released operating and financial results for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007.
Fourth quarter operations and financial update:
* The company completed the winter delineation program; the total number of delineation wells drilled by North Peace is now 17.
* The company refined geological mapping and identified an eight-section focus area for the first phase of a 24-section commercial development area.
* It initiated preliminary environmental baseline work on the commercial project area.
* It had cash and cash equivalents of $10-million and no debt as at Dec. 31, 2007.
* Capital expenditures were $2-million in the fourth quarter and $24-million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007.
Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) pilot project update:
* ERCB and Alberta environment approvals for the pilot project are pending.
* The steam generator has been moved to Edmonton, where it is being refurbished with a new low-emissions burner and instrument panel.
* The pilot site has been cleared and is ready for horizontal drilling and pilot facility construction.
* Detailed process engineering is complete.
* Major equipment request for quotations have been issued.
* Initial testing of the water source is complete.
* The company has secured and tested the water disposal well.
* Two company-owned saline carbonate aquifers have been identified for potential CO2 sequestration.
* The two CSS-capable horizontal wells will be drilled after spring breakup and pilot facility construction will begin shortly thereafter; all long-lead equipment has been procured for drilling and construction.
* The project is progressing as per the schedule and budget identified in the third quarter of 2007.
Louis Dufresne, president of North Peace, commented: "North Peace Energy has now completed its first full year of operations and it proved to be a very successful 12 months. We began trading publicly on the Venture Exchange, assembled a complete management and technical team, obtained a 100-per-cent interest in our landholdings, mapped and further delineated our resource, identifying 24 contiguous sections of net pay averaging 12 metres, determined CSS as the thermal recovery method best suited to produce the resource, and identified Canadian Natural's Primrose as a strong-producing analogue to our reservoir. We are now on the verge of building our own pilot project, and anticipate we will have first steam and production by year-end."
And yet down south these guys are exploring for CO2
Kodiak Energy adds to landholdings for N.M. CO2 project
2008-01-31 15:23 MT - News Release
Mr. William Tighe reports
KODIAK ENERGY, INC. ANNOUNCES COMMENCMENT OF DRILLING / SEISMIC PROGRAM WITH OPERATIONS UPDATE ON IT'S NEW MEXICO PROPERTIES
Kodiak Energy Inc. is providing an exploration/development program for its New Mexico properties and provide an operations update to the project.
Kodiak is the operator with 100-per-cent working interest in the project comprising approximately 57,000 acres in northeastern New Mexico.
Kodiak continues to define the New Mexico CO2 project in multiple parallel paths. The company has acquired additional lands through the state land auction process and has tendered offers to private holders of mineral leases which, if successful, will increase the company's land position by approximately 25 per cent. A 38-mile seismic program has been defined and Kodiak is currently obtaining bids on equipment, licensing process started and the program is expected to commence within 30 to 45 days. In addition, work is very actively being progressed to obtain a drilling rig for a three-to-four-well drilling program. Four drill locations have been surveyed and licensing has been initiated. This drilling program combined with the seismic program will assist to further define the project with testing for deliverability, pay thicknesses, reserve estimates, helium potential and other hydrocarbons, and thus overall project economics. An engineering report is expected to be commissioned upon obtaining results. Work is continuing to identify a potential deeper gas/oil target. The seismic will help to define this, and depending upon results, a drilling licence will be applied for this target, also.
Engineering firms have been contracted to assist with completion of a plan of development (POD) which will lead to a detailed plan for this project for the next five to 10 years, to maximize the return of investment and determine the optimum capitalization plan for the project. Targets are May 1, 2008, for POD, financing sourced by July 1, 2008, sufficient engineering complete by Sept. 1, 2008, for a Construction start very soon afterward. Target goal of first production of commercial volumes of CO2 by end of 2008. CO2 would be sold into the existing pipeline systems feeding the Permian basin. Target dates are subject to change as new information becomes available.
Good
I want to find something I like and get in before the herd
If the herd comes that is
Torr Canada gets $13-million (U.S.) CO2 unit contracts
2008-04-28 08:52 ET - News Release
Shares issued 62,556,566
TOR Close 2008-04-25 C$ 0.35
Mr. Jacques Drouin reports
TORR CANADA AWARDED US $13 MILLION CONTRACTS TO SUPPLY GAS SEPARATION EQUIPMENT IN NORTH AMERICA
Torr Canada Inc.'s American business unit, ProSep Technologies Inc., has been awarded two contracts to supply carbon dioxide gas membrane separation units for a total value of approximately $13-million (U.S.).
A single-stage CO2 gas membrane separation unit valued at $11,861,645 (U.S.) will be designed and installed at the Occidental of Elk Hills Inc.'s gas quality project to reduce the CO2 content in natural gas from 3.0 per cent to below 1.5 per cent to meet sales gas pipeline specifications. The equipment is scheduled for delivery in February, 2009. Occidental of Elk Hills is a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., the largest natural gas producer in California.
A second contract, for a single-skid two-stage CO2 gas membrane separation unit valued at $1,025,375 (U.S.), was also concluded. The equipment will be installed at Hudson's Hope Gas Ltd.'s Peace River project in British Columbia to reduce the CO2 content in coal bed methane gas from 16 per cent to below 2.0 per cent to meet sales gas pipeline specifications. Project is scheduled to be delivered within the fourth quarter of 2008. Hudson Hope Gas is a joint-venture project operated by GeoMet Inc., a developer and operator of coal bed methane properties responsible for the development of five successful large-scale coal bed methane projects in the United States.
"Our process engineers have developed a globally recognized gas treatment expertise, and our Houston-based operations allow us to provide state-of-the-art solutions and value-added services to our growing customer base," said Jacques L. Drouin, president and chief executive officer of Torr. "Four months into the year, our order backlog is at the highest level this company has seen. As we look ahead, we are confident that we will quickly become an important supplier of custom engineered solutions to oil and gas producers around the world."
Including these contracts, Torr Canada's cumulated sales backlog since January stands at over $48-million. Most of these contracts are scheduled for delivery within the next 12 to 14 months.
We seek Safe Harbor.
no interest today
CO2 Solution teams up with GCM to capture CO2
2008-04-30 07:50 MT - News Release
Mr. Normand Voyer reports
GCM CONSULTANTS INC. AND CO2 SOLUTION INC. ANNOUNCES THE SIGNATURE OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT
CO2 Solution Inc. has signed a strategic partnership agreement with GCM Consultants Inc., aiming to facilitate the implementation of the technology developed by CO2 Solution for the capture of carbon dioxide from greenhouse gas-emitting plants. Under the terms of the agreement, GCM will be responsible for the engineering of implementation of CO2 Solution's technology for customers requiring engineering needs to carry out successfully their project.
"With GCM's expertise and capabilities, CO2 Solution teams up with a first-class partner who strategically completes our research and development forces, and facilitate the implementation of our technology for customers requesting a turnkey project for the capture of CO2," said Norman Voyer, president of CO2 Solution.
Enjoying a strong growth with more than 160 employees, GCM is a consulting-engineering company which specializes in the implementation of leading-edge technologies in industrial areas with strong capitalization. GCM offers a wide variety of engineering expertise and is able to perform turnkey projects. GCM Consultants has significant activities in the oil, petrochemical, metallurgical and manufacturing fields. Backed by its industrial experience, GCM has a demonstrated capacity to accomplish reliable and performing installations. "The engineering knowledge of CO2 Solution innovative process and the expertise of GCM in adapting novel processes to existing installations constitute a guarantee of success for this partnership," added Pierre Girard, president of GCM Consultants.
wasn't a bad guy but he was made the scapegoat
With all the focus on greenhouse gases this technology is slowly coming to the forefront.
The targets being imposed on industry over the next decade will bring some serious investment into the field.
It should be immune to the impending recession (or even contribute to it).
As usual my focus, and hence the board's, will be on Canadian listed stocks.
I am not interested in any US OTC hype and will be ruthless in purging these posts.
This is not a political thread. This is not a global warming thread. This is not an Al Gore thread. I am not interested in your personal views on these subjects.
http://www.htcenergy.com/company.html
http://www.co2solution.com/a-index.html
http://www.alstom.com/home/
Links
http://www.ico2n.com/
http://www.co2captureproject.org/Phase1Index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_capture_and_storage
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