Oil driller invests in carbon-capture pipeline for Midwest

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JAMES MacPHERSON

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s biggest oil driller said Wednesday it will commit $250 million to help fund a proposed pipeline that would gather carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest and pump it thousands of feet underground for permanent storage.

Continental Resources, headed by billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm, planned to discuss the investment into Summit Carbon Solutions’ $4.5 billion pipeline at an ethanol plant in Casselton, in eastern North Dakota. The plant is one of 31 ethanol facilities across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas, where emissions would be captured and piped to western North Dakota and buried deep underground.

The pipeline system would extend 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) and could move up to 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, said Wade Boeshans, executive vice president of the Iowa-based pipeline developer. That’s equal to removing the annual carbon emissions of 2.6 million cars, he said.

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.



An ethanol refinery in Chancellor, S.D., one of many in the midwest, is shown, July 22, 2021. North Dakota’s biggest oil driller says it will commit $250 million to help fund a proposed pipeline that would gather carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest and pump it underground for permanent storage. Billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources was scheduled to make a formal announcement of the investment into Summit Carbon Solutions’ $4.5 billion pipeline Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at an ethanol plant in North Dakota. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves, file)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-north-dakota-sd-state-wire-harold-hamm-e74d548496715888921c8454f8935e31

[mahina]

1. That is terrific news. We need lots of these v

Open till I heard this podcast week or so ago I thought I knew that current capture was just never going to work, never going to help, and was just a pipe dream. (Ha)

Not true. Carbon capture has a place in future and it’s actually needed if we’re going to get there which we have to do.


This podcast of The Energy Gang is worth a listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-interchange/id1221460035?i=1000551521307

[turbinetree]

2. So I have a question what does this stuff do to the water table....

and why not solar and wind investment from Mr. Hamm.....

[lagomorph777]

7. I think it goes way below the water table.

The bigger risk would be earthquakes, same as with fracking.

In fact, I'd be willing to bet, the plan is to use this as a fracking method.

Carbon in, carbon out. Yay, carbon neutral right?

[turbinetree]

10. Agreed .......

yeah since he developed the process in many ways...it's his feel good story ....

[notinkansas]

3. I wonder what the scientists think about this

in terms of whether this could end badly. Not inclined to take the word of an oil driller regarding its efficacy or safety.

[turbinetree]

4. I was just reading this...from a last year article......

https://www.eco-business.com/news/carbon-capture-and-storage-wont-work-critics-say/

[notinkansas]

6. Thank you for posting that article.

This is telling:


"Ironically, 81 per cent of the carbon captured to date has been used to extract more oil from existing wells by pumping the captured carbon into the ground to force more oil out. This means that captured carbon is being used to extract oil that would otherwise have had to be left in the ground."

So this oil drilling company's real motivation is not just to capture carbon. Whodathunkit?

With regard to safety, I was thinking about the effects of fracking causing earthquakes and wondering if this could also produce unintended consequences.

[lagomorph777]

8. OMG I just posted speculation above, that this would probably be used for fracking.

Spot on, it seems.

Yes, fracking is fracking and this version of fracking will cause earthquakes too.

[ToxMarz]

9. I don't see how thay can guarantee it will stay sequestered, they can pump it down

but what if it just leaks back up somewhere else eventually. If humans (and money) are involved, I expect a cluster fu*k to ensue. I can only imagine there must be some net positive $$$ upside for them so the $250 million is just an investment with (huge) return rather than an expense, because capitalism.

[jalan48]

5. The largest single contributer to climate change in the US is auto emissions

​Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. GHG emissions. Between 1990 and 2019, GHG emissions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than any other sector.

https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/carbon-pollution-transportation#:~:text=Transportation%20and%20Climate%20Change,-Burning%20fossil%20fuels&text=%E2%80%8BGreenhouse%20gas%20(GHG)%20emissions,contributor%20of%20U.S.%20GHG%20emissions.