Oil sands producers plan CCS network, hub

A group of Canadian oil sands companies are planning to build a massive C$16.5bn ($12.2bn) carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to decarbonize operations.

Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL), on behalf of the Pathways Alliance consortium, filed plans for the project with the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) last week to store 10mn-12mn t/yr of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in the oil sands region of northeast Alberta.

The Pathways Alliance also includes Cenovus, Suncor, Imperial Oil, ConocoPhillips Canada and MEG Energy, which account for about 95pc of the province's roughly 3.3mn b/d of oil sands production.

Construction of the project is expected to begin as early as the fourth quarter 2025 with operations starting in 2029 or 2030.

The main CO2 transportation pipeline will be 24-36-inches in diameter and stretch about 400km (249 miles). It will initially tap into 13 oil sands facilities from north of Fort McMurray to the Cold Lake region, where the CO2 will be stored underground.

"When you have that concentration of emission sources, technologies like carbon capture and storage become very, very technically viable," Pathways Alliance president Kendall Dilling told the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas, earlier this month.

Oil sands crude producers have been criticized for being particularly carbon intensive. The Pathways Alliance is their answer to driving operations to net zero by 2050. The CCS project and "a host of other technologies" represent Phase 1 of the Pathways Alliance's efforts and will reduce oil sands emissions by about 25pc by 2030, according to Dilling. The CCS project itself accounts for about half of this reduction.

Phase 2 is planned for between 2031 to 2040 and would tie in at least another eight oil sands projects, while also ramping up alternative energy initiatives related to hydrogen, electrification and small modular nuclear reactors.

By Brett Holmes