Twenty firms chosen for carbon program
Oilsands producers join Epcor on gov't list
Dave Cooper
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, November 13, 2008
EDMONTON - From a group of 50 expression-of-interest applications, Alberta has selected 20 firms that will proceed to the next stage of the government's $2-billion carbon capture and storage funding program and prepare detailed proposals.
City-owned Epcor announced last week that it had been selected for its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) project at Genesee that would deliver the first commercial scale near-zero emission thermal power plant in Canada, but no other company said it had been officially notified until Wednesday.
At Suncor, an official said the firm was looking at "how best to approach the emission question," and will decide about retrofitting in the future.
"It's early days, we will now get more specific," said spokesman Brad Bellows.
Syncrude is at the same stage.
"We're studying how best to tackle this and will have a course of action by the next deadline of March 31," said spokesman Mark Kruger.
All the other major oilsands companies -- Canadian Natural Resources, ConocoPhillips Canada, Total E&P, Opti Canada, Petro-Canada, Statoil Hydro -- were on the government's list, as the industry begins to come to grips with climate change.
Shell's Quest program announced this month, which will see carbon dioxide collected from the Scotford upgrader either buried in the Redwater area or moved into a pipeline, also made the list.
Enhance Energy, which has been planning the first CO2 pipeline from the Industrial Heartland just north of Fort Saskatchewan to central Alberta for enhanced oil recovery, was listed with its Northwest Upgrading project partner. Construction has not started on the Northwest facility, but Enhance has an arrangement with Agrium fertilizers to supply enough CO2 to justify a pipeline.
Enbridge and TransCanada, two pipeline firms, were also listed for their plans to transport collected CO2. Oilsands emitters eventually expect to move carbon dioxide from the Fort McMurray region for use in enhanced oil recovery or deep injection into saline aquifers in central Alberta.
Other energy firms on the list were ATCO Power and TransAlta Utilities. TransAlta plans to test a French carbon-capture system at Wabamun west of Edmonton. Epcor is also testing a flue-gas recovery system at its nearby Genesee plant.
The list also includes the following firms: Sherritt International Corp., Swan Hills Synfuels, Hydrogen Energy and Enoch Cree Nation/Teedrum Inc.
dcooper@thejournal.canwest.com
