Momentum builds for CCS ammonia on the US Gulf Coast

By Julian Atchison on May 17, 2022

Enbridge & Humble Midstream: production

A VLCC vessel berthed next to the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center, which will host a new CCS ammonia project developed by Enbridge and Humble Midstream. Source: Enbridge.
Click to learn more. A VLCC vessel berthed next to the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center, which will host a new CCS ammonia project developed by Enbridge and Humble Midstream. Source: Enbridge.

North American pipeline giant Enbridge will join forces with Humble Midstream to develop a low-carbon ammonia export project near Corpus Christi, Texas. Gas feedstock will be supplied by the Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline, with carbon capture and sequestration to reduce emissions from production by “up to 95%”. The project will be built within the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center: the largest crude oil storage and export terminal in the US. Although all CCS elements of the project will be new build, the location allows Enbridge and Humble to leverage significant existing infrastructure.

Sequestration joint-venture off in east Texas: Talos Energy, Chevron and Carbonvert

The trio signed an MoU earlier this month to jointly develop the Bayou Bend CCS project in eastern Texas. The offshore lease for Bayou Bend is currently the only one in the US dedicated to CCS, and the project could potentially sequester 275 million tonnes of carbon emissions beneath the sea bed. The site is strategically located near Port Arthur, Texas, with Houston a short distance down the coast.

This project is a catalyst that enables dramatic regional carbon emissions reduction to the benefit of local industry, the global community, and future generations.

President and CEO of Carbonvert Alex Tiller in Chevron’s official press release, 3 May 2022

Chevron’s entry into the North American CCS landscape is significant, but Talos Energy’s story is just as interesting. Talos is an oil & gas organisation with significant extraction experience in the Gulf of Mexico, and it sees tremendous potential to leverage that experience, equipment and local knowledge as it pivots towards CCS. CEO Tim Duncan explains the opportunity ahead:

We’re oil and gas guys, there is no doubt about that…When we started looking at the skills we have at our company, we started asking ourselves, can we participate in a low-carbon economy? We know it’s coming, and we’re not running away from that…We thought about CCS, and we looked at our skills as geologists, project managers, drillers, and we realized we can be involved in that, and we can be involved in that right now.

Talos Energy CEO Tim Duncan in an interview with Hart Energy, 5 May 2022

More details on CF Industries – Mitsui & Co. production plant

And in an earnings call to CF Industries investors this month, CEO Tony Will has provided some more details of their joint CCS ammonia project with Mitsui:

  • Some of the rationale behind a greenfield facility is geographical separation from CF’s existing ammonia plants in the case of catastrophic weather. Last year Hurricane Ida shut down production at CF’s Donaldsonville plant for three weeks.
  • CF is expecting a cost of around $2 billion for the greenfield facility.
  • CF are targeting production of between 1 and 1.4 million tonnes CCS ammonia per year.
  • (And, in a quick update on the Donaldsonville project) All equipment required for electrolytic hydrogen production at Donaldsonville has been ordered, and the construction of CO2 handling facilities for CCS ammonia production at the same site is expected to be complete in 2024.