Canada and US continue funding CO2 storage project

Canada and the US are contributing $5.2 million for the final phase of the Greenhouse Gas Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project. The Canadian contribution of $2.2 million brings its total to $15.2 million for additional research to measure, monitor and verify CO2 storage in depleted oil reservoirs. To date, 18 million tonnes of CO2 have been stored in the Weyburn and Midale oil fields in Saskatchewan, owned respectively by Calgary-based Cenovus (formerly the oil assets of Encana) and the Canadian subsidiary of Houston TX-based Apache. CO2 is shipped 320 km from a coal gasification facility in Beulah ND to the Weyburn and Midale facilities. The project is part of the Canada-US Clean Energy Dialogue signed in February/09. The final phase of the project will also produce a best practices manual to guide CO2 geological storage projects worldwide. The Regina-based Petroleum Technology Research Centre helped to design the research program to characterize the site and monitor the injected CO2….