Shell launches Quest carbon capture and storage project

On 06th of November, 2015 Shell  celebrated the official opening of the Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Alberta, Canada, and the start of commercial operations there. Quest is designed to capture and safely store more than one million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year – equal to the emissions from about 250,000 cars. Quest was made possible through strong collaboration between the public and private sectors aimed at advancing CCS globally.

As part of its funding arrangements, Shell is publically sharing information on Quest’s design and processes to further global adoption of CCS. Quest draws on techniques used by the energy industry for decades and integrates the components of CCS for the large-scale capture, transport and storage of CO₂. CCS is one of the only technologies that can significantly reduce carbon emissions from industrial sectors of the economy.

Speaking at the official opening, Shell’s Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said: „Quest represents a significant milestone in the successful design, construction and use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on a commercial scale. Quest is a blueprint for future CCS projects globally. Together with government and joint-venture partners, we are sharing the know-how to help make CCS technologies more accessible and cost-effective for the energy industry and other key industrial sectors of the economy.”

Quest will capture one-third of the emissions from Shell’s Scotford Upgrader, which turns oil sands bitumen into synthetic crude that can be refined into fuel and other products. The CO₂ is then transported through a 65-kilometre pipeline and injected more than two kms underground below multiple layers of impermeable rock formations. Quest is now operating at commercial scale after successful testing earlier this year, during which it captured and stored more than 200,000 tonnes of CO₂.

Quest was built on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint-venture owners Shell Canada Energy (60 per cent), Chevron Canada Limited (20 per cent) and Marathon Oil Canada Corporation (20 per cent), and was made possible through strong support from the governments of Alberta and Canada who provided C$865 million in funding.

Collaboration is continuing through Quest between Shell and various parties in an effort to bring down costs of future CCS projects globally. This includes cooperation with the United States Department of Energy, and the British government on research at the Quest site.

“The secondment from the UK’s Energy Technologies Institute to the Quest CCS project is an example of British and Canadian cooperation in cutting-edge low-carbon technologies,” said Howard Drake, British High Commissioner to Canada. “This research-focused partnership will help to develop CCS expertise on both sides of the Atlantic in an effort to advance the innovative solutions demonstrated at Quest.”

Support from the local community was essential to building Quest. Shell initiated public consultation in 2008, two years before submitting a regulatory application.

Notes to editors

• CCS technology can be applied to reduce CO2 emissions across a wide range of industrial sectors, including power generation, cement, chemicals and refining, iron and steel and upgraders.
• The governments of Alberta and Canada contributed C$745 million and C$120 million respectively to Quest, building on Canada’s leadership in CCS deployment.
• Nearly 2,000 people were involved in the Quest project. Specifically, construction employed an average of 400 skilled workers over roughly 30 months.
• Quest has a robust measurement, monitoring and verification program agreed upon with the government and verified by a third party (Det Norske Veritas (DNV)).
• Public consultation was developed in collaboration with the Pembina Institute, a Canadian think tank focused on energy issues. A community advisory panel of local leaders and residents will regularly review results from Quest’s monitoring program.
• The United Kingdom’s Energy Technologies Institute, the University of Birmingham, the British government and Shell will support an eight-month secondment of a doctoral university student at Quest, to deliver on the UK Canada Joint Statement on CCS issued in 2014.
• Shell and the United States Department of Energy will field-test advanced monitoring technologies alongside the state-of-the-art, comprehensive monitoring program already in place for Quest.
• Shell is involved in a slate of CCS projects worldwide. The proposed Peterhead CCS project in the United Kingdom, currently in the design stage, is part of the UK Government’s CCS Commercialisation Programme (subject to investor approval and the securing of relevant permits).
• Shell is a partner in the Chevron-led Gorgon project in Australia and has a share in the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) in Norway.
• CCS technology developed by Shell subsidiary Cansolv is in use at the commercial-scale Boundary Dam CCS project in Saskatchewan, Canada, which opened in 2014.