The plan is still at a conceptual stage, but CO2 supply and demand potentially match up well to turn the greenhouse gas into a valuable commodity in Alberta, said Leon Zupan, head of development and services at Enbridge.
Oilsands, petrochemical, and power plants in the Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, and Medicine Hat areas emit 10,600 tonnes per day of CO2. Injections of up to 11,500 t/d will be needed to keep production going at three of Canada’s biggest and oldest oilfields: Swan Hills, Pembina, and Taber. Enbridge says a new 2,000-km pipeline grid will be required in Alberta if CO2 reaches its full potential in enhanced oil recovery. Emitters will have to install equipment to capture the gas and extract water to keep it from becoming corrosive. Oil producers, which will have to devise injection programs, could use a provincial incentive program that offers royalty credits for the use of CO2 in enhanced recovery and carbon sequestration.
EnCana Corp. pioneered a $1.1-billion project to use CO2, imported via a 325-km pipeline from a North Dakota coal-gasification plant, for enhanced oil recovery in its aging Weyburn field in southern Saskatchewan. The project has worked and a company official says EnCana is willing to consider trying the technology in other suitable oilfields.
Story courtesy of EnviroLine, Calgary, tel: +1 403 263 3272, email enviroline@shaw.ca.