Midday -- Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Locator: 44488CCS.

New SEC chairman: Paul Atkins, announced today by President-elect Trump. Crypto advocate. 

ISO-NE: midday, electricity running $180. Link here.

****************************
CCS

From oilprice today:

Saudi state oil giant Aramco is teaming up with the world’s largest oilfield services provider, SLB, and the world’s largest industrial gases company, Linde, to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub in Saudi Arabia, which will be one of the largest such sites in the world.

************************
Apple

Synching passwords: link here.

From the linked article:

If you keep your passwords stored on Apple’s iCloud, you can access those passwords on Firefox through an official iCloud Passwords extension, as spotted by MacRumors.

However, the extension only supports macOS Sonoma or later, so you won’t be able to use it with Windows.

If you do need to access your iCloud passwords on Windows, you can access them by downloading iCloud for Windows and the iCloud Passwords extension for Chrome or Edge instead.

We’ve asked Apple if it plans to add support for Windows to its Firefox extension.

Another developer originally made the Firefox extension, but Apple has taken it over, according to a notice on the extension’s GitHub page.

Apple is “now the sole owners in charge of maintaining their own official iCloud Passwords extension,” the developer says. The extension’s repository and source code aren’t linked to it anymore except for “historical reasons.”

Meanwhile:

BRK, link here. IBD says BRK is doing great. For the last couple of days:

The Day The Music Died -- This Can't Be Good News For Summit -- December 3, 2024

Locator: 44490CCS.

Updates

March 6, 2025: South Dakota.

Original Post

Link here.

Wolf Carbon Solutions is withdrawing its petition to build a 95-mile carbon capture pipeline through eastern Iowa, according to a filing Monday with the Iowa Utilities Commission.

Wolf planned to capture carbon dioxide emissions at Archer Daniel Midland Co. ethanol plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton, liquefy it under pressure and transport it to Illinois to be sequestered deep underground.

It’s unclear whether the Colorado-based company will reapply, saying in the filing it would “make a determination” once “more certainty exists concerning its plans to proceed.” The company, working in partnership with ADM on the project, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

It’s the second company to withdraw its petition to build a carbon capture pipeline. Last year, Navigator CO2 Ventures permanently withdrew its plans to build a $3.5 billion carbon capture pipeline after running into regulatory and legislative challenges in Iowa, South Dakota and elsewhere.

Update on Summit -- link here, December 3, 2024:

In contrast, Summit Carbon Solutions is progressing with its $8 billion carbon capture pipeline project across Iowa and four other states. The company, now collaborating with ethanol producers who had previously partnered with Navigator CO2 Ventures, secured regulatory approval for its Iowa pipeline in June and received the green light from North Dakota regulators last month.

If Rigzone Is Reporting It, It's Got To Be Real -- CCS -- November 29, 2024

Locator: 44452CCS.

Tag: Gorgon CCS.

Tag: CCS, carbon capture sequestration.

Link here.

Canceled: CO2 Navigator Pipeline Across Five Flyover States -- October 20, 2023

Locator: 45842ESG.

"Energy transition is dead, we just don't know it yet" -- Peter Zeihan, link here. 

Link here -- although this really isn't "only" a CO2-environmental-green-ESG story.

CO2 has applications in EOR -- enhanced oil recovery. But in this case, no EOR opportunities, so ESG .... green ... woke ...

Whatever.

 I guess it's more of a NIMBY story than anything.

From the linked article;

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A company on Friday said it would cancel its plans for a 1,300-mile (2,092-kilometer) pipeline across five Midwestern states that would have gathered carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants and buried the gas deep underground.

Navigator CO2 Ventures’ Heartland Greenway project is among a handful of similar ventures supported by the renewable fuels industry and farming organizations, but many landowners and environmental groups oppose the pipelines and question their safety and effectiveness in reducing climate-warming gases.

.... “unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa” were key to the decision to cancel the project.

.... more than 20 plants across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota for permanent storage deep underground in Illinois.

It sounds this was all about keeping corn prices high.

“It is not an overstatement to say that decisions made over the next few months will likely place agriculture on one of two paths. One would lead to 1990s stagnation as corn production exceeds demand, and the other opens new market opportunities larger than anything we’ve ever seen before,” he said in a statement.

This should help tame inflation. 

Pork and chicken prices should plummet. Maybe not beef.

This Pipeline Is Dead -- A CO2 Pipeline -- Iowa To North Dakota -- August 10, 2023

Locator: 45415B.  

Updates

August 19, 2023: update. Link here. Archived. Nothing new; just a re-hash of the original story. Operator still thinks the pipeline will be operational by the end of 2024. Summit is based in Iowa.

Original Post

Link here.

If you read this story carefully, particularly "between the lines," as they say, you will see this pipeline is dead. This is "more dead" than the Keystone XL.

Have you seen how much an acre of farmland sells for in Iowa? No way is the state or the farmers going to take a chance ruining their farmland.

This CCS project has nothing for the Iowa farmer. It only benefits Summit and a few folks in North Dakota. Iowa farmers aren't worried about North Dakota or Summit; they are appropriately worried about their own farmland.

2022:

CLR Building A Position In The Powder River Basin, Wyoming -- January 25, 2022

Re-posting. Huge story.

With free cash flow, Harold Hamm and CLR are building positions in the Permian and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. 

CLR is tracked here. 

From that link, selected data points:

• January 25, 2022: CLR acquires 172,000 net acres in Wyoming, Powder River Basin, for $2,600 / acre. 
• November 6, 2021: CLR enters the Permian.
  
• August 6, 2021: CLR will be drilling an exploratory well in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, target Austin Chalk, just west of TMS.
  
• February 17, 2021: CLR acquires 130,000 net acres in Powder River Basin, Wyoming, for $215 million, all cash deal.

The Powder River Basin deals:

• January 25, 2022 $2,600 / net mineral acre
• February 17, 2021: $1,600 / net mineral acre

Back of the envelope, Powder River Basin acquisitions:

• the "Samson" deal, see below:
• $215 million / 130,000 net acres = $1,600 / acre
• $215 million / 9,000 flowing boepd = $24,000  flowing boepd
• the "Chesapeake" deal:
• $450 million / 172,000 net acres = $2,600 / acre
• $450 million / 19,000 boepd = $24,000 / flowing boepd

The "Samson" deal:

From a reader:

This whole Powder River Basin would be a great place for CO2  -- carbon capture and storage -- so maybe they are buying u p federal property to get tax credits from Biden and CO2 deals.  There are two or three huge lignite-to-electricity plants in Gillette, Converse County. 

My reply: 

Great catch about CCS. Thank you.

Yes, the faux environmentalists are already upset that Big Oil is making money off global warming by getting credits, incentives for CCS.

Yes, CLR needs to "ESG" bullets and saying they're turning Wyoming into a CCS play could be brilliant.

By the way, they used to call this "carbon capture and sequestration" but the fourth word in that phrase was a bit too "stuffy," so they changed it to "storage." The acronym, CCS, remained unchanged.

Would-Be World's Largest Carbon Capture Pipeline -- Update -- December 9, 2021

I have to find a post where this story is and will be followed. Let's follow this story here. Now, how to tag it? NDXL-Pipeline? Or Pipeline-NDXL? Oh, there it is, it already has a name: Midwest Carbon Express.

Link here. 

There is no such thing as a "CO2 spill" -- well, at least not yet -- they're running out of excuses to ban pipelines .

What's Going On In Mercer County -- November 24, 2021

Note: This post is in progress but there's enough here for most readers to put the story together.

Disclaimer: in a long note like this coming from multiple sources, there will be content and typographical errors. Facts and hunches will be interspersed and it will be difficult to separate the two.

Updates

December 6, 2021: update; Midwest Carbon Express.

November 26, 2021, daily activity report -- a geophysical permit approved --

• Echo Seismic USA, Inc, Coteau 2-3, 145N-87W, 145-88W, 146-87, and 146-88; Mercer County;
  

November 25, 2021: see comments. Link here, dated November 15, 2021. Data points:

• Midwest Carbon Express pipeline
• from Iown and vicinity; to carry CO2 generated by CO2 plants to injection sites in Oliver and Mercer counties, North Dakota
• would cross the Missouri River north of Bismarck
• as much as 12 million metric tons of CO2 annually; equates to annual carbon emissions of 2.6 million cars;
• pipeline developer: Summit Carbon Solutions; "subsidiary" of the Iowa-based Summit Agricultural Group
• Wade Boeshans: executive VP of the pipeline developer
• previously worked as president of BNI Energy
• BNI Energy operates BNI Coal's Center Mine next to the Milton R Young Station
• MRY Station: a coal-fired power plant where another large CCS is under development
• pipeline terminates west of Center, ND, and south of Beulah
• proposed: 10 to 15 injection wells

November 25, 2021: see first comment below. That comment has link to Bismarck Tribune article. Archived here. If behind paywall, headline will provide enough background. Data points:

• Great Plains Synfuels Plant, Beulah, ND
• operated by Basin Electric Power Coop subsidiary: Dakota Gasification Co
• currently captures 2 million metric tons of CO2 annually from the facilty
• facility produces synthetic natural gas from coal
• gas compressed to liquid (GTL)
• piped north to Canada; injected to boost oil production
• current project:
• short pipeline from facility to an injection site north to Coteau Properties CO
• Coteau operates the mine that feed coal to the synfuels plant

November 24, 2021: Summit Carbon Solutions has moved T&S Drilling 1 from Milton Flemmer 1 (#38594) to Archie Erickson 2 (#38622); see this post;

Where We Stand In Mercer County

There are three "operators" of interest:

Summit Carbon Solutions

• #385594, Milton Flemmer 1, NWNE 35-141-88;
  
• #38622, Archie Erickson 2, SWSW 12-142-88;
  
• see this pipeline story: giant pipeline across the Midwest;

Rampart Energy

• Coteau 1
• a wildcat, SWSW 1-145-88

UND EERC

• Flemmer 1
  

Background

For background, see this post from June 28, 2021 -- just a few months ago.

Rampart Energy Company:

• has been operating in North Dakota since 1959
• Rampart Energy has about 50 records on file
• Coteau 1: wildcat, SWSW 1-145-88; a "long way" from the Bakken;
• south of the lake; well east of the Bakken; southeast (outside) the Ft Berthold Reservation;
• if this is a crude oil well (not a natural gas well), this will be interesting to follow
  
• from "Bakken operators:

Rampart Energy Company 

• June 16, 2021

• Rampart's wildcat, Coteau 1, will be sited in SWSW 1-145-99, Mercer County, 555 FSL and 460 FWL; the oil field is also a wildcat; 
• Rampart has about 50 permits in North Dakota; it has been active in North Dakota since 1959; 
• Rampart's previous well in North Dakota, #27081, Craig Allen 10-3H, Stanley oil field; SESW 11-155-91; a Bakken well that was drilled in 2015 and has reported a respectable 228K bbls crude oil cumulative;

Now today: I believe these are carbon capture exploratory wells. To the best of my knowledge, NDIC is not updating the map or the scout tickets, so it's difficult to figure out what's going on. 

A reader writes:

I see they have a rig drilling the Coteau #1. I'm assuming it's for carbon capture? 

But a buddy of mine said there's what looks like 2 more drilling locations ready to MIRU between I-94 and Beulah on highway 49. Any insight on this?

If any reader has any update on the Rampert Energy rigs drilling these wells, readers would appreciate an update.

Later: 

This must the location the reader's buddy was reporting when he/she said there appeared to be two more drilling locations ready to MIRU between I-94 and Beulah on Highway 49. So far my sleuthing only comes up with Milton Flemmer 1. If the buddy is correct, we may also be looking at Milton Flemmer 2 but that's a bridge too far right now. 

See this post from October 20, 2021:

• Summit Carbon Solutions has a permit, #38622, for an Archie Erickson 2 well, to be sited in SWSW 12-142-88, a wildcat, to be sited 902 FSL and 794 FWL

So, the first map, November 24, 2021:

Map updated November 24, 2021, following NDIC's end-of-day daily activity report: 

Wow, it never quits. Seeing these maps, this post, a reader was reminded of a wildcat that Harold Hamm drilled back in 2009 looking for the eastern fringe of the Bakken. In the map below, the black circle is the general location of that well:

• 17877, PA/84, CLR, Traxel 1-31H, Beaver Creek Bay, t12/09; cum 12K 12/13;

The map:

Giant Pipeline In US Midwest Tests Future Of Carbon Capture -- Reuters -- November 23, 2021

Synopsis:

• ethanol plants in Iowa produce a lot of CO2
• opportunity for these plants to pipe CO2 to North Dakota where it can be stored
• Summit Carbon Solutions: pipeline across midwest and injection sites in North Dakota
• farmers in Iowa not happy with idea of pipelines across their land: NIMBY
• see this post for more.
  

Original Post

Feature story of the day. You may have to "register" to get to article over at Reuters but it's free. I've archived the article. Regular readers know what this is all about. I'll come back to it later when I get caught up.

Link here. 

Nov 23 (Reuters) - Dan Tronchetti received a letter in August that alarmed him: Summit Carbon Solutions, a company he'd never heard of, wanted his permission to conduct survey work for a 2,000-mile pipeline it planned to route through his Iowa corn and soybean fields.

The project, dubbed the Midwest Carbon Express, had ambitions to become the world's largest carbon dioxide pipeline, moving climate-warming greenhouse gases from Midwest biofuels plants to North Dakota for permanent storage underground.

But Tronchetti's first concern was for his livelihood. "It would go more than half a mile through prime farmland," he said.

The 65-year-old is among dozens of landowners along the route who are refusing to cede their property to the project, according to Reuters interviews with five landowners, four community groups organizing opposition, several academics and industry sources plus a review of filings with state regulators.

The impasse could escalate into potential court battles if Summit tries to seize the land by claiming eminent domain. Such legal fights contributed to the cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline this year.

The outcome of the dispute poses huge stakes for Summit's $4.5 billion project, and for the Midwest ethanol producers it would serve who are hoping to wipe away their carbon footprints and burnish their green credentials.

It also represents what could be the biggest test yet for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry, which has struggled for years but which advocates say could become a powerful tool in the global fight against climate change.

Underground geological formations in the United States have the potential to store 2.6 trillion tons of planet-warming CO2, enough to cover all of America's historical emissions and those to come for centuries, according to the Department of Energy.

But there are open questions about whether CCS can ever fill them. Despite billions of dollars of public investment over the past decade, the technology remains relatively untested.

The United States boasts just 12 operational commercial CCS facilities that together have an annual capacity to store away 19.64 million tons of carbon, about 0.4% of national emissions.

Much, much more at the link; this is simply the beginning of a long, long article. 

Notes From All Over -- The Kyndryl Edition -- October 21, 2021

UNP, 3Q21 earnings:

• profit topped analysts' expectations
• cost cuts and price increases bolstered the bottom line even as cargo growth lagged
• UNP cut its 2021 volume target
• volume growth, 5%, down from a target of 7%;
• EPS: $2.57 vs $2.51, and higher than than the $2.01 a year earlier;
• revenue rose 13% to $5.6 billion vs $5.4 billion forecast

Economic indicators released today: wow, wow, wow -- the housing sales numbers were absolutely incredible. I was impressed. 

A reminder, IBM to split into two companies:

• Kyndryl ("can drill") would have been a better name for an oil company
• link here; and, here.

Wework: set to go public via a SPAC two years after failed IPO. Link to WSJ. 

Supply chain shortages:

• US: just-in-time delivery
• China: just-in-case delivery

********************************
CCS

Updates

October 21, 2021: HartEnergy has the story, finally. And also at KFYR. 

North Dakota’s regulatory framework for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) is leading the nation again as the North Dakota Industrial Commission approved the first Class VI well in North Dakota on Oct. 19.

 North Dakota was the first state to receive primacy of Class VI wells from the US EPA in 2018, followed only by Wyoming in 2020.

Original Post

North Dakota carbon storage: ethanol plant seeks to capture emissions. Amy R. Sisk.

North Dakota: A Gift To The Planet -- U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm -- But We Already Knew That -- October 14, 2021

Over at Yahoo!News: 

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, during a visit to the Energy & Environment Research Center at UND, said she believes North Dakota is poised to play a key role in addressing climate change.

Granholm visited Grand Forks on Thursday, Oct. 14, to tour the EERC with Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Gov. Doug Burgum. Following that tour, they held a discussion with energy company executives from across the state.

That discussion focused on the generation of clean power, but also on advancing to commercialization carbon capture utilization and storage technology (CCUS) — essentially stripping carbon from coal or other energy sources, and burying it underground. Energy executives said doing so will require expanded federal financial assistance.

Granholm said she doesn't view combating climate change with a silver bullet, but rather "silver buckshot." In North Dakota, that buckshot pattern hits several targets, including further rolling out wind and solar power, but also working to decarbonize fossil fuels.

And, then look at this:

Burgum said North Dakota "hit the jackpot of geology" because the state can store 252 billion tons of carbon underground in a carbon "sink." That amount, he said, equates to 50 years of national carbon production from energy generation, or 4,400 years in what North Dakota generates on its own.

Granholm agreed, saying: "You've got a comparative advantage, clearly in carbon capture and storage because of your geography," and called the storage capacity a "gift to the planet."

In May, Burgum announced an ambitious plan to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030. Burgum said since that announcement, investment from outside the state has poured in, to the tune of $25 billion for projects like carbon capture programs.

Blue Hydrogen -- It's Happening -- North Dakota -- August 16, 2021

Updates

January 17, 2023: the update from RBN Energy did not include the Bakken.

August 17, 2021: link here. Blue hydrogen in the UK. Graphic pending, the dual-track blue hydrogen / green hydrogen program in the UK. Blue hydrogen in the UK will exceed CO2-emissions target, link here.

Original Post

A huge "thank you" to a reader for alerting me to The Williston Herald story. 

For background, see this June 2, 2021, post: blue hydrogen, Mitsubishi, Denbury, RBN Energy, and all that jazz. 

For more background, gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and green hydrogen, at Forbes, February 22, 2021.

“Green hydrogen is what Europe absolutely wants. But blue hydrogen is what a lot of the world thinks we can afford sooner and it’s probably going to be good enough,” he said. “It’s really more of a market-driven thing than a technology thing.”

From The Williston Herald (by the way, has anyone noticed that the Herald is getting better and better or is that just me?), link here. Data points:

• blue hydrogen hub in the Bakken
• to be built in about half the time "it usually takes" 
• a greenfield plant normally take ten years to build / become operational
• operator says a brownfield plant might take just five years
  
• operator / source of data: Bakken Energy
• announced August 16, 2021 (today)
• the deal:
• official name: the North Dakota Hydrogen Hub
  
• partners: Basin Energy and Mitsubishi Power
  
• Basin Electric Coop will purchase the assets of the Dakota Gasification Company
• Dakota Gasification Company owns the Great Plains Synfuels Plant
• expected to close April 1, 2023
• Synfuels to continue existing operations through 2025
• the plant, when complete:
• 310,000 metric tons of hydrogen per year
• primarily sourced through locally natural gas (CH4 --> CO2 and hydrogen)
• Mitsubishi Powers Americas
• the centrally-located North Dakota Hydrogen systems will connect Mitsubishi's planned wester and eastern US hubs to establish a national hydrogen network
• Mitsubishi: will create: a Change in Power division
  
• the CO2 will end up in CCS projects
  

From the blog, June 2, 2021, linked above:

To that end, Figure 1 below shows a simplified process flow diagram for a typical SMR unit.

Figure 1. Simplified SMR Flow Diagram. Source: RBN

To create hydrogen via SMR, natural gas is first fed into a processing unit called a reformer. There it reacts with high-temperature steam and a catalyst, usually one that is nickel-based, to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The resulting gas mix is then fed to the shift conversion unit, where the carbon monoxide reacts with the steam to produce even more hydrogen, plus carbon dioxide (CO₂). The hydrogen and carbon dioxide are then sent to a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit, where the CO₂ is removed from the hydrogen.

North Dakota Carbon Capture And Storage -- August 13, 2021

Updates

October 21, 2021: HartEnergy has the story, finally. And also at KFYR. 

North Dakota’s regulatory framework for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) is leading the nation again as the North Dakota Industrial Commission approved the first Class VI well in North Dakota on Oct. 19.

 North Dakota was the first state to receive primacy of Class VI wells from the US EPA in 2018, followed only by Wyoming in 2020.

Original Post

Re-posting:

North Dakota carbon storage: ethanol plant seeks to capture emissions. Amy R. Sisk. Key words:

• Richardton ethanol plant
• Red Trail Energy
• could be the first project in North Dakota that both captures and injects carbon emissions underground
• North Dakota and Wyoming are the only states that have assumed full permitting authority fro the EPA for carbon injection projects
• first  location: a well east of the Stark County plant targeting the Broom Creek rock formation more than 6,300 feet deep
• CO2 would form a plume in the pore space; 
• "supercritical" under high pressure and temperature
• CO2 to be trapped there forever; the nearest drinking water source lies 4,000 feet above the injection layer, but if it escapes, hey, we have carbonated water
• 90% of landowners with pore space in the project area have signed leases, meeting the state's 65% threshold for a project to move forward
• one carbon capture project has already operated for years within North Dakota at Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah. Carbon dioxide from the facility is piped to Canada where it’s injected into old oil fields to boost oil production

Carbon Capture And Storage -- May 1, 2021

In an earlier post I wrote:

Carbon capture projects, by country. Link here. Readers each get three guesses which country has the most carbon capture projects in the works, and the first two guesses, if wrong, don't count. Hint: the country is not China, Russia, Germany, Norway, Saudi Arabia, or Lichtenstein. 

I had not thought about that much until now. Think about that. Name the sector or the companies that have carbon capture and storage (CCS) as their core competencies. Now imagine nations throwing money at these companies to increase CCS. This is another huge revenue stream for the E&P companies.

The graphic at the above link: