Canadian producer submits plans for Alberta CCS hub
West Lake Energy, a Calgary-based private oil and gas company, said May 5 it had submitted a bid to Alberta’s second round of requests for full project proposals to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) hubs in the province.
West Lake’s proposed hub, near Pincher Creek in the southwest corner of the province, would have the capacity to sequester more than 2.7mn mt of CO2 over its 30-year life. Emissions would be drawn from a planned blue ammonia project in the area, BowArk Energy’s proposed gas-fired power generating station expansion and other industrial emitters in the area.
“We’re extremely excited about the potential of the Pincher Creek hub project,” West Lake CEO Bruce McDonald said. “Unique to the area, this venture represents a clean energy solution for not only West Lake but for the broader growth of the power, industrial and agricultural sector in southern Alberta through the reduction and storage of carbon emissions.”
The proposed hub would leverage the environmental footprint of the existing surface leases and infrastructure for CO2 sequestration, as well as the battery site for the blue ammonia plant. West Lake has also completed a detailed review of existing area well completions in a saline aquifer, identifying wells that can be repurposed for observation to help monitor subsurface injection.
“The Pincher Creek hub project will not only allow BowArk to continue supplying Alberta electricity but will allow us to expand our natural gas fired Drywood plant to supply much needed capacity to the power system while reducing emissions,” BowArk president Brad Sparkes said.
Drywood is a 6 MW gas-fired peaking plant located on the site of an old Gulf refinery 25 km southeast of Pincher Creek. BowArk has plans to add three additional gas-fired reciprocating electric generators with a total capacity of 33.9 MW.