Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process that captures CO₂ from large industrial sources and injects it into carefully selected sites deep underground for safe, long-term storage. CCS projects - also known as carbon capture and sequestration - are being pursued in Canada in response to climate change issues. Experience in Canada and around the world has shown that CCS can be done safely and produce positive environmental results.

CCS projects operating or are under development in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.:

• Cenovus Energy and Apache Corporation - Weyburn-Midale CO₂ Project - This eight-year $80-million international project studies CO₂ injection and storage underground in depleted oil fields in southeastern Saskatchewan. It is the largest and most advanced CO₂ storage project in the world and is being carried out in conjunction with commercial-scale enhanced oil recovery operations. Currently 17 million tonnes of CO₂ have been stored underground in the reservoirs.
• Penn West Petroleum - Penn West Project - operates the project using CO₂ from two of the Nova Chemical Corp ethylene plants at Joffre, Alberta. It was the first CO₂ enhanced oil recovery project in Canada. The only commercial CO₂ EOR using industrial emissions originating in Canada and has stored about one million tonnes of CO₂ over the past 25 years.
• Apache Canada - Zama CO₂ EOR Pilot Project - uses acid gas (a mixture of hydrogen sulphide and CO₂ that must be removed from sour gas before it can be sold) for an EOR pilot project in Zama, Alberta. The project started operating in 2004 and now produces oil from five pools, while safely disposing of acid gas and reducing CO₂ emissions.
• Shell Canada, Chevron Canada Limited and Marathon Oil Sands - Shell Quest Project - will capture and store up to 1.2 million tonnes of CO₂ per year from the Scotford upgrader in Alberta's Industrial Heartland near Fort Saskatchewan The CO₂ will be injected 2 300 metres below the earth's surface underneath cap rock. This could be the first bitumen upgrader fitted for CCS.
• ARC Energy Trust - Heartland Area Redwater Project (HARP) - with the Alberta Research Council started the first phase for a carbon capture and storage project designed to mitigate emissions related to Alberta's oil sands. Located in the Alberta Industrial Heartland, this project is being supported by the Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI) and Natural Resources Canada.
• Enhance Energy and North West Upgrading - Alberta Carbon Trunk Line - will construct a 240-km CO₂ pipeline system that will greatly increase the capacity for future carbon capture and storage projects in the province. One of the initial sources of CO₂ will come from the North West Upgrader once it is built. The pipeline will be designed to carry up to 14 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.

While the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin is the most significant storage reservoir, there are also safe and secure storage sites in Atlantic Canada and southern Ontario.

Canadian petroleum firms and provincial governments employ advanced and innovative technology:

• Alberta is taking the lead in advancing CCS technology and developing actual steel-in-the-ground applications that can be shared with other jurisdictions.
• At the Weyburn oilfield, it has been demonstrated that oil production from a mature field can be enhanced in an environmentally responsible manner by using the CO₂ for flooding; that otherwise would have been vented to the atmosphere.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) - Resource Center