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CCS Projects: Alberta
By Max McBride Peterson
Meanwhile, in Alberta...
Alberta’s solution for the growing levels of carbon dioxide being produced by the province’s
booming oil and gas industries is the Integrated CO2 Network (ICO2N).
| Canada could become a leader in CCS with suitable geology to sequester CO2 such
as Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. |
Comprised of 15 companies, including Imperial Oil and Shell Canada Ltd., ICO2N plans to
take the CO2 emissions from oil and gas refineries and other big industry in the province,
and pump it into the Earth, using similar carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes as the
Weyburn, Sask., project. But the group believes Canada could become a leader in CCS with
similar programs rolling out in other areas with suitable geology to sequester CO2,
such as Ontario and the Atlantic provinces.
The first phase in Alberta would see pipelines stretching from Fort McMurray to Red Deer
which would transport CO2 to suitable geological storage areas in the province.
ICO2N sees their strategy as both economically and environmentally friendly. As in Weyburn,
CCS would be used for enhanced oil recovery, which allows more oil to be pumped from the
ground, getting more barrels from reserves that were thought to be unreachable. But at the
same time, the group hopes to be diverting 20 megatonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere
in the next decade or so.
Making ICO2N a reality will take long-term investment in CO2 infrastructure. Funding is
dependent not only on private industry but also on government policy to make the concept
a reality.
Alberta is currently part of the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership project with nine American
states and three other Canadian provinces. The $136 million project will conduct geologic CO2
storage tests in Alberta and the Williston Basin in North Dakota.
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