Canadian company Pembina Pipeline Corp has reached out to stakeholders in two other carbon capture hubs in Alberta to join forces.
Pembina Pipeline (NYSE: PBA, TSX: PPL) and TC Energy Corp (NYSE: TRP) announced earlier this year in June that they plan to work on an infrastructure system to transport and permanently store CO2. they were looking to develop a system to transport and sequester carbon.
Pembina Pipeline looking for economy of scale?
The Pembina-TC plan, formally named Alberta Carbon Grid, has two competitors at this point in time – the Oil Sands Pathways, a joint-venture of the largest oil sands producers in the country, and Polaris, a project proposed by Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDSA).
The cooperation seems to be initiated by Pembina CEo Mick Dilger, who commented: “A single, large carbon capture program at scale is by far the most sensible way to do things,” Dilger said. “If everybody works together, we’ll come up with a more cost-effective solution.”
The talks are ongoing and there has been no indication of the likelihood of their success.
Relevant: Two New Carbon Capture Hubs On Canada’s Agenda
Pembina and TC say the first phase of their project could be operational by 2025 with the project utilising spare pipelines that they already own to cut down on costs. Dilger claimed that the other proposals are more heavily reliant on new infrastructure that needs to be started from scratch.
Alberta Government Funds Clean Energy
News of this proposed partnership comes a day after The Alberta government signed off on $176 million funding for 16 clean-energy projects.
Alberta unveiled its TIER program in 2019 as an alternative to the federal government’s carbon tax. Large industrial facilities representing about 60 per cent of Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions pay into the fund.
The Monday announcement follows a $750-million investment made last year , when the province emptied the TIER fund to boost projects that improve energy efficiency or capture, use or store waste carbon dioxide.
Read more: Carbon Capture Tax Credit To Be Introduced By Canada
