Continental Resources invests in CCS project: Update

Adds interview starting in eighth paragraph.

US oil and gas producer Continental Resources is investing $250mn in a project to pipe CO2 to North Dakota where it will be permanently buried underground.

Summit Carbon Solutions is aiming to capture the CO2 from ethanol plants and other industrial sources in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. The CO2 will be then be transported to North Dakota via a 680-mile (1,094km) pipeline, where it will be stored in subsurface geologic formations.

The strategic investment in Summit from Continental Resources over the next two years will help fund the development and construction of the project's associated capture, transportation and sequestration infrastructure.

The carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project has commitments from 31 ethanol facilities to deliver more than 8mn metric tons (t) a year of CO2, with an initial pipeline capacity of 12mn t/yr.

Cutting the carbon footprint of ethanol production in half will give the plants access to new markets that have implemented low-carbon fuel standards, according to Summit. Last month, the company filed a pipeline permit application in Iowa, where the bulk of the committed ethanol facilities are located.

"Carbon capture will play an integral role in helping reduce global emissions, and we believe Summit Carbon Solutions has the most capital-efficient project to further this goal," Continental Resources chief executive Bill Berry said.

Continental will use its geologic expertise to ensure the safe and secure storage of CO2. The first interstate CCS project in the US has an estimated start-up date of first half 2024.

Carbon capture from ethanol is one of the lowest-cost options available, Berry said in an interview.

"This was something that we looked at quite a while back saying, 'Is this a type of project that we would see as the right thing to do?'" Berry said. "And we said, 'Yes.'"

Although the project has already met with some opposition from local landowners, Bruce Rastetter, who heads parent company Summit Agricultural Group, is optimistic this could be overcome.

"It's actually really beneficial to the farmer in terms of the easement reflecting today's land value," he said.

Continental has long operated in the Bakken shale of North Dakota, but recently took a major step into the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico with its $3.25bn purchase of assets from Pioneer Natural Resources.

By Stephen Cunningham