Shell has announced plans for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at an oil sands operation in Canada. The Quest project will be built on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture owners (Shell, Chevron and Marathon Oil) with support from the Government of Canada.
CCS is critical to meeting the huge projected increase in global energy demand while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, explained Peter Voser, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell plc in a press release. “If you want to achieve climate change goals, CCS has to be part of the solution. We are helping to advance CCS technology on a number of fronts around the world, but Quest will be our flagship project.”
Construction has already begun on the project and starting late 2015, Quest will capture and store deep underground more than one million tonnes of CO2 annually produced in bitumen processing. The Quest project will reduce emissions from the Scotford Upgrader by up to 35 per cent – the equivalent of taking 175,000 North American cars off the road annually.
The Canadian government have identified CCS as an important technology in their strategies to reduce CO2 emissions.
The Canadian government have identified CCS as an important technology in their strategies to reduce CO2 emissions.
The International Energy Agency says that CCS is “a crucial part of worldwide efforts to limit global warming” and estimates that it could deliver about one-fifth of necessary worldwide reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050. Shell is also working with governments and experts to help the development of CCS in other countries, including projects in Norway and Australia.