Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 46

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

There are also preliminary plans to capture CO2 Canada, aided by recently unveiled government
at the Isle of Grain terminal in Kent in southern support at both the federal and provincial lev-
England, and in south Wales. els. And with Canada increasingly being touted
Another key project is Porthos in the Nether- as a potential leader in the development of blue
lands, where gas grid operator Gasunie is lead- hydrogen – produced through methane steam
ing a consortium that aims to store some 2.5mn reforming alongside a CCS component to mini-
tpy of CO2 in the North Sea from industries in mise emissions – further opportunities for CCS
the Rotterdam area. Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon- developments are expected to arise. However,
Mobil, Air Liquide and Air Products, expected as with all emerging technologies, developers
to be Porthos’ first customers, signed joint devel- will need to balance costs with local and federal
opment agreements (JDAs) on the scheme in emission reduction goals.
December last year. South of the border, meanwhile, CCS has
been less visible in the US. However, CCS initia-
Porthos is vying for €102mn ($118mn) in to gain traction initially because they had been “
financial aid from the EU’s Connecting Europe tives are underway there too – having struggled CCS serves a vital
Facility, and the Dutch government has also
pledged to subsidise some of the cost of CCS. designed with EOR in mind, but came as the role in capturing
This will be vital, as Porthos estimates that stor- shale revolution lowered demand for such tech- the CO2 that is
age and transport costs alone will come to €30 niques. Now, though, the concept of capturing
per tonne. CO2 purely for the sake of lowering emissions produced when
is starting to take off, bolstered by a federal tax
North America credit introduced in 2018. natural gas
Both the US and Canada are seeing a handful of For example, at least two proposed LNG
new CCS proposals, with more likely to come projects on the US Gulf Coast include a CCS is converted
as decarbonisation efforts gather momentum. component as they try to position themselves into hydrogen
However, it will likely be some time before as being the most environmentally friendly
any new CCS projects are developed in North projects of their kind. Neither NextDecade’s via methane
America. Rio Grande LNG nor G2 Net-Zero LNG’s pro-
Canada considers itself a leader in CCS posed facility have yet reached the FID stage, reforming
thanks to existing schemes that notably include however. Indeed, NextDecade has suggested
the Quest project, which captures and sequesters Rio Grande could reach FID in 2021 if it secures
CO2 from a bitumen upgrader. Another par- enough offtake agreements. G2 Net-Zero LNG,
ticularly prominent project is the Alberta Car- meanwhile, only proposed its LNG terminal – a
bon Trunk Line (ACTL) – the largest pipeline in cleaner redesign of a previous plan – earlier this
the world for CO2 emitted from human activ- year and still has some way to go until the facility
ity with a capacity of up to 14.6mn tpy – which can be built.
became fully operational in June. CO2 trans- Overall there are around 30 CCS projects
ported via the pipeline is delivered to Central under development in the US, according to the
Alberta for both storage and use in enhanced oil Houston Chronicle. Almost a dozen of these are
recovery (EOR). being planned along the Gulf Coast, with Louisi-
“This critical piece of infrastructure sup- ana increasingly keen to position itself as a CO2
ports significant future emissions solutions, storage hub.
new utilisation pathways and innovation in the Similar geography exists in Texas, which
carbon capture space,” ACTL operator Wolf would also have extensive aquifers and depleted
Midstream’s president of carbon, Jeff Pearson, oilfields that could potentially be used for stor-
said in June, after the pipeline came fully online. ing CO2. But Texas – the largest CO2 emitter in
“The future of energy and a lower-carbon econ- the US – has not yet shown the same state-level
omy relies on key infrastructure like the ACTL.” enthusiasm as Louisiana to proceed with wide-
More CCS initiatives are underway in scale CCS development.

Week 46 19•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7