SUMMARY

The company already set up a framework agreement with Chevron to review carbon sequestration opportunities.

By Daniel Graeber

US midstream company Enterprise Products Partners may consider retooling parts of its pipeline network for carbon capture and sequestration projects, the Reuters news service reported December 9.

Major energy companies are looking at ways to lower their carbon footprint by either finding ways to store their CO2 emissions or funnel them to potential end users through midstream infrastructure.

Jim Teague, the co-CEO at Enterprise, said at the World Petroleum Congress conference in Texas that pipelines could be repurposed for carbon, “but there has to be a business there,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Enterprise in September established a framework agreement with Chevron to evaluate opportunities in carbon sequestration at their Gulf Coast and US Midcontinent operations.

Chevron and Enterprise have both worked together in the past on carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects. New work will focus on ways to combine the midstream infrastructure controlled by Enterprise with Chevron’s sub-surface expertise to create opportunities to either capture, collect, transport or sequester CO2.

Teague, however, said there were issues with transparency when examining the carbon market in the United States.

“I don't know what the price of carbon is,” he said.

Teague was speaking alongside Charif Souki, the head of LNG company Tellurian, who also expressed concerns about how well the carbon market was set up.

“What I’m concerned about is dysfunctionality and people not understanding our position in the world,” Souki was quoted by Reuters as saying. “I’m concerned about the lack of policy and the lack of intelligence going into making policy.”