Canada approves evaluations for major CCS project

Canada’s largest oil sands producers have signed an agreement with the government to begin geological evaluations for one of the world’s largest CCS projects, the consortium called Pacific Alliance announced on Thursday.

The project located in north-eastern Alberta aims to initially sequester 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2030 into a saline aquifer, which is equivalent to 73.3% of overall emissions. The alliance’s end goal is to enable net-zero emissions from operations by 2050, which is in line with the government’s national targets.

Plans for the storage hub includes a 400-kilometre pipeline that will initially pool carbon dioxide emissions from 14 oil sands facilities in Alberta’s Fort McMurray, Christina Lake and Cold Lake regions with the goal of linking more than 20 projects in the province, including other industries.

Detailed testing is expected to begin in 2023 and the project is expected to begin injecting carbon dioxide by late 2026.

The Pathways Alliance is composed of companies that operate around 95% of the country’s oil sands production, including Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy.

“Alberta’s geology makes this one of the most ideally suited places in the world to safely inject and permanently store CO2,” said Kendall Dilling, president of the Pathways Alliance.