Greencore Pipeline Dedicated, Bringing CO2 To Montana And Wyoming

Denbury Resources executives say they intend to purchase as much CO2 from Conoco-Phillips at Lost Cabin as they can. Their new Greencore Pipeline, dedicated Wednesday, will transport that CO2 232 miles to the Bell Creek Field in Montana.

Robert Cornelius, senior vice president of CO2 supply with Denbury Resources, wouldn't say how much they'll pay for the CO2, but the economics, he says, make sense. Executives and dignitaries gathered Wednesday at the Natrona Hub to dedicate the $300 million pipeline, signifying start of CO2 diversion out of the atmosphere and back into the ground. He estimates as much as 100 million tons of CO2 per year will no longer be released into the atmosphere.

Cornelius says they'll also be adding pipeline spurs, first to the Hartzog Draw Field in Northeast Wyoming in 2015, "but we do plan to expand the pipeline system. We have the Riley Ridge, which is in the LaBarge Field in southwest Wyoming and we are looking to expand in that area to capture CO2 there."

Additionally, in western Natrona County, is the Grieve advanced oil project. Natrona County Commissioner, Bill Mcdowell, says that field may get its first CO2 injection in early 2013. He anticipates mineral severance tax revenues from oil recovered there could benefit the county coffers by 2015. Mcdowell made a cautious estimate of several hundred thousand dollars a year in mineral ad valorem tax.