Enabling the world’s largest carbon sequestration project
The technique of storing carbon dioxide in reservoirs underground, known as Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), is increasingly seen as a key step towards a net zero future.
Our dedicated CCUS team includes multidisciplinary engineers and geoscientists who previously worked in the oil and gas sector, and are now applying their skills towards permanently sequestering emissions.
The Alberta Carbon Grid (ACG) is a world-scale carbon transportation and sequestration system being designed to serve multiple customers and industries. Once fully constructed, the ACG aims to transport and sequester up to 20 million tonnes of CO2 annually (mtpa) – almost 10 percent of Alberta's industrial emissions, supporting the province’s transition towards a lower-carbon economy.
Our CCUS team supported the ACG Industrial Heartland project, which was recently selected by the Government of Alberta to enter into an agreement, granting ACG the right to conduct evaluations and testing within the awarded area-of-interest to determine its suitability for carbon sequestration.
The team is helping reduce subsurface risks and uncertainties to ensure the ACG can meet its sequestration capacity for 30 years. This is a multi-year program; with the signing of the evaluation agreement, an appraisal program can be performed to characterise sequestration reservoirs and optimise well placement. The program of acquiring and interpreting seismic data, appraisal well drilling and testing, and laboratory analysis is being done in stages, enabling detailed dynamic reservoir simulations to reduce risk and uncertainty.
As part of our role, our team has developed a preliminary static geologic model of the study area, covering more than 50,000 km2, about 600 townships. The model will help evaluate carbon dioxide storage capacity and injectivity using dynamic reservoir simulation drawn from a range of sources including well data from former drilling sites across the study area.
“Together with ACG, we are working with the Government of Alberta, and connecting with Indigenous communities and key stakeholders to further evaluate the suitability of each location for safely storing carbon from industrial emissions,”
says Director of Subsurface, CCUS - Michelle Pittenger.
“As green energy sources evolve, the world cannot immediately shut off carbon-rich sources of energy. Instead, a transitional period will be required until a complete break can occur. CCUS allows for the mitigation of excess carbon to bring the carbon output to a minimum,”
says Director of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage - Heath Nevels.
“The ACG project will provide emitters in the area with a cost-effective, safe and reliable solution to permanently store carbon dioxide.”
