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Occidental Petroleum argued that the Permian Basin Carbon Capture Facility is a practical way to reduce emissions such as carbon dioxide that cause climate change. Despite the technology’s promise to help fight climate change, some people in West Texas are concerned about its potential environmental impact.
At a summer presentation in Odessa about Occidental’s Stratos carbon capture facility, Sarah Stogner looked at a map of where oil companies want to inject carbon dioxide into the ground.
“There’s a well here that even God doesn’t know about,” she said. “No one has looked at shallow geology the way they’ve looked at deep geology with faults.”
Stogner is an outspoken advocate for local landowners whose work focuses on identifying and plugging leaking oil and gas wells. She worries that Occidental’s planned underground injection of carbon dioxide could find its way out through nearby wells. Mr. Stogner was also recently selected to serve as the next District Attorney for the 143rd Judicial District, which covers a large area of the Permian Basin.
Occidental wants to extract CO2 from the atmosphere with a new carbon capture facility and permanently store up to 722,000 tons of gas per year deep underground. This is a process known as carbon sequestration.
Before that can happen, the company needs to get a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to drill what’s called a Class VI well, the first in Texas. Class VI wells are the official name for wells that pump carbon dioxide underground. Long term storage.
Stogner believes there may be unplugged and forgotten wells near where Oxy is building carbon capture facilities or planning to drill carbon injection wells. are.
“If you look at the places they’re talking about, it’s on the edge of development. It’s the worst place for an uncharted well. It’s a disaster coming,” she said.
Three old oil and gas wells were discovered near where the company plans to inject CO2. An EPA spokesperson said those wells must be re-plugged before the project can move forward.
Committee Shift executive director Virginia Palacios is also concerned. Her group is dedicated to improving the way states regulate oil and gas. She argues that Oxy’s proposal would only add to recent problems in the West Texas oil fields.
“We’re seeing eruptions like Permian geysers. We’re seeing a lot of leaks from unplugged wells throughout the basin,” she said. “I am very concerned that if this Ector County Class VI injection permit is approved, there will be more problems.”
Earthquakes, brine spewing from old wells, and other leaks are problems associated with the oil and gas industry, which injects wastewater underground. Palacios said underground injection of carbon dioxide can pose similar problems, and it’s important that the EPA takes these issues seriously when deciding whether to grant Oxy a permit to drill a Class VI well. He said that.
EPA’s permitting process is governed by the Safe Water and Drinking Act. This process is intended to protect groundwater and ensure that injected greenhouse gases do not cause problems in the future.
“This is going to be the blueprint for all future permits elsewhere in the state,” Palacios said. “So we need to be really intentional about preventing groundwater contamination as much as possible using this very experimental technology.”
Carbon dioxide has been injected into the ground in West Texas since the 1970s to aid oil and gas production. Occidental Petroleum spokesman William Fitzgerald said in a statement that the company has “more than 50 years of expertise safely and securely storing large amounts of carbon dioxide in West Texas.”
If the permit is approved, Oxy would be required by the EPA to monitor a number of factors around the proposed injection well, including assessing subsurface pressure, groundwater quality, and well integrity.
Critics of carbon capture argue that carbon capture is not actually effective at reducing greenhouse gases and is used to help companies prolong their use of fossil fuels instead of moving to cleaner forms of energy. It is argued that there is a possibility that
“I think the benefits far outweigh the risks,” said Tip Meckel, a researcher who studies carbon sequestration at the University of Texas’ Bureau of Economic Geology.
Meckel said he understands the concerns, but said this facility and others like it will play an important role in the fight against climate change.
“This facility, which pulls carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, will be a model for successful emissions reductions for the next 100 years,” he said. “The less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the better for climate stability.”
Even if Oxy’s bid to drill a CO2 injection well is rejected, the technology likely has a future in Texas, Meckel said. EPA is currently evaluating 15 similar carbon sequestration projects within the Lone Star State.
“Class VI will be approved in Texas in the near future,” he said. “It’s too important not to move on and try.”
The EPA is in the final stages of considering Oxy’s application and is expected to make a decision in the new year. The company aims to start operating the Stratos facility in 2025.
