Kinder Morgan to invest ~$1B on new CO2 system for EOR
26 March 2014
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. will build and operate a new, 213-mile (343 km), 16-inch diameter pipeline to transport carbon dioxide from the company’s St. Johns source field in Apache County, Arizona, to the Kinder Morgan-operated Cortez Pipeline in Torrance County, NM. The new Lobos Pipeline will have an initial capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet per day and will support current and future enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects owned by Kinder Morgan and other operators in the Permian Basin of West Texas and eastern New Mexico.
The company plans to invest approximately $300 million on the pipeline, and an additional $700 million to drill wells and build field gathering, treatment and compression facilities at the St. Johns field. The project is expected to be in service by the third quarter of 2016 pending receipt of environmental and regulatory approvals.
Construction of the Lobos Pipeline will follow existing utility rights-of-way wherever possible to minimize environmental impacts. The project will employ approximately 1,200 contractors during construction.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company and one of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America. It owns an interest in or operates more than 54,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals.
So are they creating CO2 at coal power plants in Arizona and piping it to Texas for fracking? How careful are they about leaks? What happens to the people in Texas using this process? Forgive me I don't trust anything the oil or power companies do because it always turns out to be harmful to the people and great for their profits.
Posted by: Lad | 26 March 2014 at 01:52 PM
The CO2 isn't coming from coal burning, but from a natural gas field. Natural gas fields generally contain some CO2 (especially in sedimentary basins). K-M is collecting it to use for EOR.
Your initial thought that it was coming from coal burning probably comes from what you've heard about "CO2 Sequestration" from coal-burning power plants, which is often talked about but not yet in service on any scale.
Posted by: Herman | 26 March 2014 at 10:58 PM
The market system must create a market for CO2 if we don't want it released into the air, this is a good start. There is a coal to SNG plant in Montana which has been operating for 30 years and sells the CO2 to oil well companies. That makes it profitable.
Posted by: SJC | 30 March 2014 at 09:35 AM