Shell and Carbon Capture and Storage

Shell is a strong supporter of the embryonic Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology.

CCS Booster
In November 2008, Shell's Executive Vice President of Future Fuels and CO2, Dr. Graeme Sweeney, said that "we recognise that climate change is a defining challenge of our generation, and that CCS technology will play a critical role in addressing it. A safe and cost effective way to capture and store CO2 from coal, oil and natural gas is imperative if we are going to meet the challenge of increased energy demand and the need to tackle climate change. CCS is an expensive technology to deploy. Government leadership and support is needed, especially in the crucial period between now and 2020 when the first CCS projects will be developed. During this time lessons will be learned and costs reduced to make the technology commercially viable. For this reason we strongly support the Australian Government’s leadership in this area."

Shell is a founding member of the Australian Government's proposed Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute and involved in a range of CCS related projects including :


 * "the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geologic Storage of CO2 (IPAC-CO2) in Canada, with the University of Regina and the Government of the province of Saskatchewan;
 * the Australian Otway project, lead by the CO2 Cooperative Research Centre, which has started injecting 100,000 tonnes of CO2 into a depleted natural gas reservoir 2km beneath the surface (www.co2crc.com.au/otway/);
 * the proposed “Quest” project in Canada to capture and store up to 1.2 mio tonnes of CO2 per annum from the Shell Scotford Upgrader and the Scotford Upgrader Expansion (www.shell.com.ca/quest);
 * the research collaboration with Imperial College London, together with Qatar Petroleum, to provide the foundation for new CO2 technologies that can be applied in Qatar and beyond (http://www.shell.com/home/content/qatar/news_and_library/press_releases/2008/carbonate_reservoirs.html);
 * the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project that is currently in its final phase in Regina, Canada (www.ptrc.ca/weyburn_overview.php);
 * the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership and CO2 Capture Project in the US (www.CO2captureproject.org); and,
 * the CO2SINK pilot project in Germany (www.CO2sink.org)."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Clean Development Mechanism and Carbon Capture and Storage
 * COP14
 * COP15
 * Emissions Trading
 * Joint Implementation
 * Kyoto Protocol
 * United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change