Hey, This Is Texas! Of Course This Facility Is The Largest Of Its Kind In The Universe -- January 10, 2017

This could be the biggest non-Bakken story of the year to date.

Updates

October 31, 2017: EIA update on Petra Nova. 

The Petra Nova facility, a coal-fired power plant located near Houston, Texas, is one of only two operating power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the world, and it is the only such facility in the United States.

The 110 megawatt (MW) Boundary Dam plant in Saskatchewan, Canada, near the border with North Dakota, is the other electric utility facility using a CCS system.

Petra Nova’s carbon-capture system is designed to capture about 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from the flue gas slipstream, or about 33% of the total emissions from Unit 8. The post-combustion process is energy intensive and requires a dedicated natural gas unit to accommodate the energy requirements of the carbon-capture process.

 The carbon dioxide captured by Petra Nova’s system is then used in enhanced oil recovery at nearby oil fields. Enhanced oil recovery involves injecting water, chemicals, or gases (such as carbon dioxide) into oil reservoirs to increase the ability of oil to flow to a well.

By comparison, Kemper had been designed to capture about 65% of the plant’s CO2 using a pre-combustion system. The capital costs associated with the Kemper project were initially estimated at $2.4 billion, or about $4,100 per kilowatt (kW), but cost overruns led to construction costs in excess of $7.5 billion (nearly $13,000/kW). Petra Nova CCS retrofit costs were reported to be $1 billion, or $4,200/kW, and the project was completed on budget and on time.

April 13, 2017: press release, no link -- "Secretary Perry celebrates successful completion of Petra Nova carbon capture project." Data points, same as those previously posted, but these new ones or important enough to be reposted:

• joint venture: NRG Energy (US) and Nippon Oil (Japan)
• funded in part by US DOE; originally conceived as a 60-MW electric capture project
• expanded to a 240 MWe Houston-area power plant; quadrupling the size of the capture project without additional federal investment 
• 5,000 tons of CO2 captured daily; EOR at the West Ranch Oil Field
• to boost production from 500 bopd to 15,000 bopd
• estimate: 60 million bbls of recoverable oil from EOR operations

January 10, 2017: also in Financial Times.  Additional data points:

• the project is called Petra Nova
• $1 billion project
• capturing CO2 from the equivalent of 240 megawatts of power generation
• covering costs by using gas for oil production

Original Post

At Reuters via Rigzone:

• operations have begun
• NRG Energy and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration
• $10.4 billion carbon capture facilty
• Texas coal-fired power plant
• emissions are being used to extract crude from nearby oilfield
• 80-mile pipeline (yes, at least one state can still build pipelines) to the West Ranch Oil Field
• West Ranch Oil Field opened in 1930; produces 300 bopd
• with EOR, production should jump to 15,000 bopd within three years
• unlike wind and solar projects, this project will NOT result in higher utility costs for consumers
• CO2 extraction = EOR (enhanced oil recovery) -- several readers have spent several years waiting for this news -- time to break out the champagne
• largest of its kind in the world
• US DOE funded $190 million for the project's construction
• Japan: $250 million in loans
• NRG / JX Nippon: split the remaining $600 million
• Mitsubishi: engineered the plant
• at its peak: 1.6 million tons of CO2/year (4,000 tons/day) -- 90% of NRG's nearby power plant, the largest in Texas
• since opening December 29, 2016: 111,000 tons of CO2 (111,000 / 12 days = 9, 250 tons/day (I may have done the math wrong, but the first ten days, the average collected more than doubled expectations
• the other science project, the incredibly expensive Kemper, MS, plant is yet to come on-line
• cost $7 billion (so far) 
• the Texas plant: $1.04 billion
• uses a different process to capture CO2