Summit Carbon Storage

The Summit Carbon Solutions North Dakota Storage Complex is a large-scale Class VI CO₂ geologic sequestration project developed by Summit Carbon Solutions to permanently store carbon dioxide transported via the Midwest Carbon Express (MCE) pipeline from more than 50 ethanol plants across the Midwest. As originally permitted, the project consisted of three hub-scale storage facilities (Summit Carbon Storage #1, #2, and #3) located across Mercer, McLean, Morton, and Oliver Counties, North Dakota, collectively covering tens of thousands of acres of amalgamated pore space and permitted to store up to approximately 18 million metric tons of CO₂ per year, making it one of the largest Class VI storage developments in the United States. CO₂ is to be injected into the Broom Creek Formation. In August 2026, Summit formally requested cancellation of the Summit #1 and Summit #2 storage permits, effectively abandoning approximately two-thirds of the original North Dakota storage footprint after determining "as a matter of business judgment" not to proceed with construction, development, or operation of those two storage areas. The permit cancellations follow a lower district court decision earlier in 2026 that voided all three of Summit's state-issued storage permits, and were approved by the North Dakota Industrial Commission. Summit is now narrowing its state Supreme Court appeal exclusively to the remaining Summit #3 site, where it has secured approximately 98% of the necessary pore-space storage rights and faces less concentrated landowner litigation. The company has stated it will shift primary injection operations toward alternative storage hubs in Wyoming while maintaining its Midwest Carbon Express pipeline route easements and remaining North Dakota storage assets for potential future development.