Alberta selects 3 projects to receive $2 billion in carbon capture and storage funding

On June 30, the Alberta's Ministry of Energy took a major step forward in its $2 billion capbon capture and storage initiative. The Ministry announced that the following three projects had been selected for funding:

• Enhance/Northwest for The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, to incorporate gasification, CO2 capture, transportation, enhanced oil recovery and storage from the Agrium fertilizer plant and the Northwest upgrader;
• EPCOR/Enbridge for an integrated gasification combined-cycle carbon capture power generation facility adjacent to EPCOR'S existing Genesee power plant, west of Edmonton; and
• Shell Canada Energy/Chevron Canada Ltd./Marathon Oil Sands L.P. for a fully integrated carbon capture and storage project at the Scotford Upgrader.

Details of the projects have not yet been made public.

The Ministry expects to negotiate letters of intent with each of the winning proponents by the end of this month.

The press release leaves open the possibility that other projects would be considered if negotiations with the winning proponents fail. A list of the 11 projects that were considered in the final round may be found here. Recall from our previous posting that 20 companies originally applied for funding, but 9 withdrew their applications because they believed the projects could never be economically viable.

In the RFP package, the Ministry had described the purpose of the funding as follows:

"The ultimate goal of the CCSF is to encourage the development of three to five large scale integrated CCS facilities that will capture and permanently store up to five million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2015, for a period of at least 10 years. This initiative is an important first step in the broader adoption of CCS in the province and will create the momentum for private sector investment in CCS. By encouraging CCS in Alberta, the CCSF will contribute to the solution for climate change and GHG emission reductions while maintaining Albertans' quality of life and allowing continued economic growth. In reaching this goal, GHG emissions at facilities such as coal-fired electricity plants, oil sands extraction sites, upgraders, and other large scale industrial facilities will be reduced."