One of the world’s biggest oil majors on Wednesday announced plans to proceed with a pair of multi-billion carbon capture projects near Edmonton in what could be the first of many similar announcements to come.Shell Canada Products, a division of Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, said it has made a final investment decision to proceed with the Polaris carbon capture facility at the Scotford refinery and petrochemicals complex near Fort Saskatchewan.When completed it will pull 650,000 tonnes a year of CO2, or about 40%, of its refinery emissions and 22% of its chemicals off gases to be sequestered in underground storage wells..It also announced plans to move ahead in a 50/50 partnership with ATCO EnPower to build the Atlas Carbon Storage Hub which will initially store the captured CO2 via a 22-kilometre pipeline.Future plans call for expanding the Atlas site to potentially store carbon for third parties — but that is subject to a future investment decision.Costs weren’t disclosed, but in 2023 the company announced pans to spend up to $15 billion to build out its carbon network in Alberta.It’ll be Shell’s biggest Canadian outlay since Shell sold off its Canadian oil sands assets for $10.9 billion to Canadian Natural Resources. Ironically Scotford is connected to the Muskeg River mine.."Carbon capture and storage is a key technology to achieve the Paris Agreement climate goals," said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell's Downstream, Renewable and Energy Solutions Director. "The Polaris and Atlas projects are important steps in reducing emissions from our own operations.".Likewise, ATCO put out its own statement saying Atlas is the first step in plans to build out its “energy transition value chain” by offering services to to third parties..Both are expected to be operational by 2028.“The Atlas Carbon Storage Hub is integral to ATCO’s decarbonization and ESG targets. This facility is expected to provide a resource for emitters in the Alberta Industrial Heartland to reduce both their carbon emissions and carbon tax liability,” it said.Shell built and operates the existing Quest CCS plant at Scotford — one of the world’s first — that catches about 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. When it was completed in 2015 it was controversial for the amount of subsidies it received, including $865 million of its $1.3 billion cost in direct subsidies from the Alberta and federal governments.Next on the books is the $16.5 billion Pathways Alliance project which is also awaiting final review.Carbon capture has since turned into a major component of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s energy strategy which offers 12% grants for eligible capital costs for new CCS projects, partly paid for from the industrial operation of the carbon tax.In addition, the federal government has in its 2021 budget offered refundable tax credits of up to 60% of project costs. Although the exact levels haven’t been determined, they’ll be retroactive to January 1, 2022.Critics on both sides, however, have called CCS a “distraction” meant to lure public tax dollars with no discernible guarantee of whether it even works. “Carbon capture and storage is a dangerous distraction being promoted by the oil and gas industry to prolong business as usual," said Julia Levin, Environmental Defence's national climate associate director.
