Dakota Gasification Company

Dakota Gasification Company is based in Bismark, North Dakota, and is a for-profit subsidiary of Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which provides wholesale electric power to rural electric cooperatives in nine states. Dakota Gasification operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, a in west-central North Dakota, the only commercial-sale coal gasification plant in the United States. The plant's construction cost $2.1 billion and began to operate in 1984.

Great Plains Synfuels Plant
Dakota Gasification Company (Dakota Gas) owns and operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in the North Dakota, which processes lignite coal to make syngas and retains much of the carbon dioxide in the process. It ships the gas by pipeline to southern Saskatchewan, Canada, where oil producers pump it underground to increase oil production. The plant retains about 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Basin believes the pipeline has additional capacity to ship carbon dioxide from the Antelope Valley Station carbon capture project, and additions could be built to supply the gas to western North Dakota oil producers.

According to the company's website:


 * Average daily production of natural gas is about 153 million cubic feet, the majority of which is piped to Ventura, IA, for distribution in the eastern United States.
 * The Synfuels Plant supplies carbon dioxide to the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project in the world in Saskatchewan, Canada. About 3 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) are sequestered annually.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage
Dakota Gas captures and sells CO2 produced in its plant to Saskatchewan, Canada through a 205 mile pipeline. The CO2 is pumped underground and used to help extract oil there. According to the company's website:


 * As of 2009, Dakota Gas exports about 152 million cubic feet per day of CO2 to Canada – about 50 percent of the CO2 produced when running at full rates.
 * As of Dec. 31, 2008, Dakota Gas has successfully captured more than 16 million tons of CO2 for delivery.

Additionally, Dakota Gas shares its sales of natural gas revenue with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and has been doing so since 1988. In 2008, Dakota Gas paid an estimated $58.2 million in revenue sharing to the DOE. As of January 1, 2009 Dakota Gas has paid the DOE $380.8 million.

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