Perry asks NPC to conduct studies on oil, gas transportation, CCS

Oct. 9, 2017
US Energy Sec. Rick Perry asked the National Petroleum Council to conduct separate studies on the nation's oil and gas transportation system as well as on possible ways to commercialize carbon capture and storage (CCS).

US Energy Sec. Rick Perry asked the National Petroleum Council to conduct separate studies on the nation's oil and gas transportation system as well as on possible ways to commercialize carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The current transportation network is not adequate to handle recent rapid changes in the US industry that have been driven by dramatic technological exploration and production breakthroughs, Perry told council members at the NPC's Sept. 25 meeting.

"All that energy has to be delivered, and that means that our energy transportation infrastructure must be up to the job. We have to invest more in our infrastructure," Perry said.

Perry's formal request for the study asked for a comparison between the current state of pipelines and other energy transportation assets and expected needs for transport under varying supply and demand assumptions, an NPC representative said after the meeting.

She said Perry would like it to identify technological advances that can improve the transportation system's safety and reliability while minimizing environmental impacts. The study also should explore options to improve infrastructure siting that will make the system more resilient.

"I think it's been more than a decade since the NPC has done a study of oil and gas-related infrastructure: the needs, challenges, and opportunities that are in front of us. Given all that has changed over the last 15 years, I believe we need a new study," Perry declared.

Perry's request for the second study came 3 days after DOE announced $36 million in funding to support cost-shared research and development on ways to move CCS projects to either the engineering scale or a commercial design (OGJ Online, Sept. 27, 2017).

Extensive CCS experience

Deputy Energy Sec. Dan Brouillette said in separate remarks that substantial progress has been made on CCS technologies. However, he pointed out that a single oil and gas operator injects 26 times more carbon dioxide per day than is handled by the nation's largest and newest CCS facility, which he said illustrates why the industry is the right group to examine the CCS issue.

The CCS study also will examine future energy demands, and identify current barriers to economic deployment of CCS facilities at scale, the NPC representative said. Perry asked that it lay out a road map to an economic framework to advance CCS's development and deployment and identify legal, regulatory, or liability obstacles to commercial CCS investment, she said.

The secretary, who also was joined by US Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, praised the council's past work, noting that 2014 and 2016 NPC reports on emergency preparedness were critical to the successful response to Hurricane Harvey several weeks ago.

Plains All-American Pipeline LP Chief Executive Officer Greg L. Armstrong, who has been elected NPC chair, concurred. "The importance of the emergency preparedness reports to the Harvey response is a perfect example of why the NPC exists: We are here to share the collective experience of the industry to provide a public benefit," he said.

Devon Energy Corp. Chairman Emeritus J. Larry Nichols was elected vice-chair of NPC, which has elected vice-chair of the council, which has about 200 members representing all segments of the oil and gas industry as well as a broad cross section of other businesses.