Hatch and Colt starting work on Alberta C02 aquifer storage project

Things are moving along in the first phase of the largest study in carbon sequestration technologies in North America.
Five contracts were awarded by the 35-member Alberta Saline Aquifer project to start work such as identifying aquifers and doing engineering design and cost estimate studies for the pipelines and site facilities.
Carbon sequestration is a technology that would see carbon dioxide emissions from extraction processes at the Alberta oilsands recovered and injected into deep underground saline aquifers. It is seen as a way to ease the environmental impact of the oilsands operations by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that go up into the atmosphere. As well, the carbon dioxide is sometimes used to help extract oil and gas reserves within the aquifers.
The Alberta Saline Aquifer Project is an industry initiative with 35 member companies in phase 1. The group is spearheaded by Enbridge Inc. and includes engineering companies Hatch Energy, WorleyParsons Canada, and Norwest Engineering.
The Calgary office of Hatch Energy (based in Mississauga, Ontario) has been asked to design facilities at the sequestration sites once they’ve been identified, and to prepare cost estimates for them. Colt WorleyParsons in Calgary is to produce a front-end engineering design study and cost estimate for the compression and pipeline system needed to transport the carbon dioxide from the production site to the aquifers. Norwest Engineering, which has offices in Calgary and Vancouver as well as the U.S., has the job of identifying three potential aquifers in Alberta. Conoco Philips has donated its Athabasca basin data log to assist in this work.
These activities are part of Phase I of the Alberta Saline Aquifer project and are expected to be completed by the end of 2008. Phase 2 will see the construction and operation of a pilot project handling 1,000-3,000 tonnes a day of carbon dioxide by 2012.