Alberta companies to supply massive CCS project

CALGARY—Several Alberta companies have been selected to work on what is expected to be the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

Enhance Energy Inc., a Calgary-based energy company, is building the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Project (ACTL).

The project will gather CO₂ from several sources in Alberta’s industrial heartland and transport it to existing mature oil fields throughout South-Central Alberta.

The oilfields are expected to see significant increases in production once the CO₂ is permanently stored in the reservoir. These reservoirs will store 14.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year as the oil is produced. The project is expected to be operational in late 2011.

Opsco Manufacturing (Opsco) has been commissioned to design and fabricate a water removal skid package for the project. Headquartered in Calgary, Opsco is a manufacturer of customized oil and natural gas production equipment.

The company is engineering and making a skid package for the ACTL project. The package is designed to remove water from the CO₂ stream. It includes a glycol contactor, reboiler, vapor recovery compressor, exchanger, piping and pumps required to separate water from the incoming CO₂ stream.

Also selected for the project was Cameron, a producer of ball valves. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company has seven manufacturing facilities in Alberta.

Enhance Energy Inc. is partnering as well with Calgary’s KTI Ltd., a products and services distributor for the energy industry.

KTI has already been involved in the project through the initial design phase and will continue its involvement throughout the commissioning of pipeline for the project.

The initial supply of CO₂ will come from Calgary-based companies North West Upgrading Inc. and Agrium Inc.

Altogether, the ACTL is expected to create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in additional
royalties and taxes, according to Enhance Energy.