By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 5 -- Enbridge Inc. plans to lead a group of 19 energy companies in the Alberta Saline Aquifer Project (ASAP), a carbon capture and storage (CCS) research and pilot sequestration project.
Oil companies involved include BP Canada Energy Co., Chevron Canada Resources, ConocoPhillips, Encana, Penn West Energy Trust, and TransCanada. Enbridge primarily is a pipeline company. Other ASAP members are gas and electric utility companies.
Initially, ASAP will identify deep saline aquifers suitable for long-term storage of carbon dioxide in Canada. The first phase is expected to be completed by yearend 2008.
A second phase calls for designing sequestration sites to receive injected carbon dioxide. Later phases could involve large-scale, long-term commercial sequestration.
Patrick D. Daniel, Enbridge president and chief executive officer, called ASAP "an excellent opportunity for industry members to collaborate in the effort to find climate change solutions that work."
On Feb. 1, a joint federal-provincial government panel recommended that Canadian governments invest $2 billion (Can.), to be matched by energy industry funding, toward CCS research with the goal of sequestering 5 million tonnes of CO2 by 2015.