September 05, 2012
CALGARY, ALBERTA - The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, today applauded the decision of Shell Canada, along with partners Chevron Canada Limited and Marathon Oil Canada Corp., to proceed with an important investment in the Quest carbon capture and storage project.
"The Harper Government will continue to invest in innovative technologies such as the Shell Quest project to help support high-quality jobs and responsible development of Canada's energy resources," said Minister Oliver. "The project will help demonstrate the potential of carbon capture and storage technology in the oil sands and highlight Canada's global leadership."
Quest is a fully integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) project that is being expanded by Shell Canada and its partners Chevron Canada Limited and Marathon Oil Canada Corp.
"The Quest project is the world's first commercial-scale CCS project to tackle CO2 emissions in the oil sands," said John Abbott, Shell's Executive Vice-President of Heavy Oil. "Beyond the importance of Quest in reducing the footprint of our oil sands operations, the knowledge it provides will be valuable in helping to accelerate the deployment of this technology elsewhere in the world."
The project involves the capture, transportation, injection, storage and monitoring of CO2 emissions from the Shell Scotford upgrader. The CO2 will be compressed and transported by pipeline to an injection location approximately 80 kilometres north of the upgrader. The CO2 will be stored permanently in a geological formation called the Basal Cambrian Sands, located two kilometres below ground.
The Harper Government's $120-million investment comes from the Clean Energy Fund, which is part of Canada's Economic Action Plan. This program provides $795 million over five years to support research and development projects that will advance Canada's leadership on clean energy technologies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy production.
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