Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
3/20/2015
Describing carbon capture and storage as integral to combating climate change, Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Jorma Ollila urged increased support for CCS technology in the company’s 2014 Annual Report, released late last week. “It is clear that new technologies will be needed to tackle climate change effectively. For example, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to store carbon dioxide (CO2) safely underground could substantially reduce the amount of CO2 emitted in energy production at lower cost than many other technologies. But widespread government and industry support is needed to ensure that enough CCS plants are built around the world to make a substantial contribution to the wider drive to reduce CO2,” Ollila wrote.
Shell is currently in the process of constructing the Quest CCS project in the Canadian province of Alberta. The project is a retrofit of capture technology onto Shell’s existing Scotford oil sands upgrader near Edmonton. When completed, the project will remove an estimated 1 million tonnes of CO2 annually from the bitumen upgrader and transport it nearly 40 miles north to a storage site. It is projected that the project can run at this capacity for 25 years. The project is on schedule to begin CO2 injection in the second quarter of this year.
Ollila also wrote that a carbon price may be the most efficient way to usher in a low carbon future. “All sectors of society must work together to combat climate change effectively. One vital and pressing step is to set up effective systems for putting a price on carbon emissions. It is an efficient way to encourage companies to change their activities in ways that have a deep and lasting impact on emissions. I was encouraged to hear at the United Nations (UN) Climate Summit in New York in September 2014 that the need for effective carbon pricing systems had broad support. I hope that significant progress can be made on this at the crucial UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015,” he wrote.
