We've been skeptical of Summit Carbon Solutions Midwest Carbon Express project, as readers have learned in posts from our first, to our recent reprint of CO2 pipelines: who wins & who loses?
There's been a pair of articles that have furthe piqued our interest in this project. The first, Jeff Baker's Carbon pipeline headed for North Dakota oil wells? Summit says 'no' but skeptics remain, published in Ag Week on February 28, brought up an angle we hadn't seen before:
. . . One of several issues — safety concerns, landowners rights in the face of eminent domain, damage to farmland — that opponents have with the project is that the carbon dioxide could be sold to oil companies for enhanced oil recovery.
Dan Wahl is a farmer near the Green Plains ethanol plant at Superior in northwest Iowa.
“I don’t think there’s anything good about this whole thing,” Wahl said of Summit's plans.
He said neighbors have banded together in opposition to Summit, and the pipeline’s route to North Dakota makes them suspicious of the carbon dioxide being used in the Bakken oilfields.
“No one will put it in writing that they’re not going to use it for enhanced oil recovery,” Wahl said.
And at least one news article from early on in the project said Bruce Rastetter, the CEO of Iowa-based Summit Agricultural Group, which is the parent company of Summit Carbon Solutions, said enhanced oil recovery was being explored.
But Summit says that is not the plan.
“Our plan is not to use the CO2 for enhanced oil recovery,” said Chris Hill, who is in charge of permitting for Summit. . . .
That link leads to Amy Sisk's March 2, 2021 article in the Bismarck Tribune, Proposal would capture CO2 from Midwestern ethanol plants to store in North Dakota:
Rastetter declined to say where in the state Summit is looking to inject the carbon dioxide. Other carbon storage projects are eyeing the central and western parts of the state.
Summit is proposing to inject the carbon dioxide down multiple wells, and it’s also exploring other options to put the gas to use, Rastetter said. That includes potentially injecting it into depleted oil fields to boost oil production.
A federal tax credit is helping bolster that process, known as enhanced oil recovery, as well as underground storage. Rastetter said Summit’s project wouldn’t be possible without it.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, has worked to flesh out the details of the tax credit so that companies like Summit can make use of it.
“Major investments like this don’t just happen -- it took the right legal framework, as well as regulatory and tax certainty,” he said in a statement.
Summit estimates construction of the project will take at least 16 months and create 10,000 temporary jobs.
The project still needs to secure permits from various governmental agencies, including several in North Dakota.
Summit’s carbon dioxide pipeline would potentially be the second of its kind in the state. One other runs from Basin Electric’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah to Saskatchewan, where carbon dioxide from the plant is used for enhanced oil recovery.
The North Dakota Public Service Commission has permitted one other carbon dioxide pipeline in southwestern North Dakota for another enhanced oil recovery project run by Denbury Resources, but the company delayed its construction plans last year when the price of oil crashed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Baker's more recent article seems like a set up for the latest headline. As we read at Ag-Week on today, Wednesday March 2, Baker reports in Continental Resources investing in 5-state carbon capture project:
Continental Resources, which helped drive a resurgence in North Dakota’s oil industry, is investing in what is being billed as the largest carbon capture project in the world — taking greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol plants and storing it underground in North Dakota.
Summit Carbon Solutions on Wednesday, March 2, announced a $250 million investment from Continental Resources.
“Continental Resources has been in North Dakota for over 25 years. As the state’s largest leaseholder and producer, no company knows the geology better than we do. The regulatory environment is second to none and we are grateful to North Dakota’s leadership, who has been laying the groundwork for a project like this and been a leader in sequestration for nearly 20 years,” Continental Resources founder and Chairman Harold Hamm said in a news release. . . .
Summit says it isn’t asking for any of the ethanol plants to help pay for the pipeline project, instead, it would take a percentage of the premium price that ethanol plants would get from selling fuel on the low-carbon market.
Summit also is banking on a federal tax credit of $50 for every ton of carbon dioxide that is permanently stored. Summit says it will be capable of storing 12 millions tons of liquid carbon dioxide per year in Mercer and Oliver counties in western North Dakota.
Summit would like to start construction in 2023 and have the pipeline operating in 2024.
While liquid carbon dioxide can be used for enhanced oil recovery, Summit has said that is not in its business plan.
Reporting for the Associated Press, James McPherson reports in Oil driller invests in carbon-capture pipeline for Midwest (via the Star Tribune):
. . . Boeshans said the involvement of Hamm likely will help raise capital and boost the project's profile. Hamm's company helped lead a renaissance in the U.S. oil industry through the use of horizontal drilling to free oil trapped in shale rock. Continental is the biggest producer and largest leaseholder in the Bakken shale formation, with more than 1 million acres (404,686 hectares) in North Dakota and Montana.
Hamm told The Associated Press that his company is looking at the pipeline project as more than an investment.
"We feel it's the right thing to do at the right time," Hamm said. "Carbon capture and storage is going to be more and more important every day as we go forward in America."
That's mighty civic minded of him. McPherson continues:
North Dakota is the nation's No. 3 oil producer behind Texas and New Mexico.
Continental and Summit officials said there are no plans to inject carbon dioxide into old oil wells to boost production, a process that has been largely unsuccessful in North Dakota.
"That is not part of our business plan," Boeshans said.
North Dakota's underground rock formations are ideal for carbon storage, state Geologist Ed Murphy said.
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum praised the Summit pipeline and other proposed carbon storage projects in North Dakota, which are integral as part of the state's plan to become carbon neutral by 2030.
[Wade Boeshans, executive vice president of the Iowa-based pipeline developer] said the company in December began negotiating with landowners along the pipeline's path for easements, though the company would not rule out the use eminent domain if agreements with landowners can't be reached voluntarily.
"Overall, we're making progress with voluntary easements," he said.
The company has not filed permit applications in North Dakota for the pipeline, or for the estimated dozen underground wells needed for storage. The project could employ up to 17,000 people during construction, and lead to 500 permanent jobs when it's expected to come online in mid-2024, Boeshans said.
Jeepers. We wonder whether we're witnessing the coupling of carbon dioxide injection storage with the public relations practice based on inoculation theory. We certainly hope readers follow the link before we're accused of being anti-vaccine.
Screengrab: The proposed Summit CO2 pipeline, which could capture CO2 from ethanol plants, such Granite Falls Energy LLC in Granite Falls, Minnesota, which would help reduce the ethanol plants' overall carbon footprint. West Central Tribune, via Summit CO2 project.
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