CO2 Capture and Sequestration

[johnlw]

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. ...............
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