Quest

The Quest CCS project captures CO₂ from three hydrogen manufacturing units at the Scotford Upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, where hydrogen is produced to upgrade bitumen from the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP). The capture system uses an activated amine process to separate and recover CO₂ with high purity, which is then dehydrated, compressed, and transported via a 60 km pipeline to deep saline formations (Basal Cambrian Sands) for permanent geological storage around 2 km underground. Quest began construction in 2012, with Fluor Corporation serving as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the capture facility, which was completed and commenced operations in late 2015. The system is designed to capture and store about 1 million metric tons of CO₂ per year, roughly one-third of the Scotford Upgrader’s emissions, and has cumulatively stored several million tonnes since startup. The project is operated by Shell Canada on behalf of the AOSP joint venture, in which Shell holds 60 percent, Chevron Canada Ltd. 20 percent, and Marathon Oil Canada Corp. 20 percent. Public funding included C$745 million from the Government of Alberta and C$120 million from the Government of Canada’s Clean Energy Fund, forming part of the initial ~C$865 million support package for Quest. Quest remains one of the earliest commercial-scale industrial CCS facilities globally and continues capturing CO₂ as part of broader efforts to deploy and demonstrate integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage at commercial scale.