SHELL has secured $865million of funding from the Canadian federal government and provincial government of Alberta for its Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
The project is intended to capture and permanently store deep underground more than 1million tonnes of CO per year from the company’s Scotford Upgrader near Edmonton, which processes heavy oil from the Athabasca oil sands.
This will be the first time CCS technology has been used in the controversial oil sands business.
Shell aims to be a leader in improving its oil sands environmental performance through CO reduction, improved water management and minimising the impact of tailings ponds.
Innovative technological solutions, including CCS, will be required to achieve that goal.
Securing public money is one element of Shell’s 100,000 barrels per day expansion of its Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), bringing total capacity to 255,000bpd.
With CO injection planned for 2015, the Quest project would join a handful of CCS projects around the world that are injecting CO at a commercial scale.