CHEYENNE – A new company plans to inject carbon emissions deep into underground geological formations in eastern Laramie County. If realized, it would be the second project of its kind in the province.
However, founder and CEO Jeff Kummer says this project is unlike any other across the country.
Jeff Kummer
Jeff Kummer is a landowner, founder and CEO of Meriden Carbon.
Last year, Tallgrass, an energy infrastructure company, applied for a permit from the state to store carbon emissions in underground wells. To do this, the company leases land from landowners who own the surface area where the CO2 will be stored, and the landowners receive royalties from the company over many years.
Kummer’s company, Meriden Carbon, is slightly different because while it has the same intent of storing CO2 underground, it gives the landowners more of a say in the project. Kummer has united 20 landowners in northeastern Laramie County, in the Meriden area, who own a total of 100,000 acres. These landowners have agreed to work together to allow companies looking to achieve decarbonization goals to store their emissions in geological formations deep beneath their properties.
Initially, Kummer had worked in the area, looking for oil and natural gas resources.
He found that there were not many large springs in this area, but instead discovered geological formations that he believed were suitable for CO2 storage.
During his work in the area, which started around 2017, he had gotten to know many of the local landowners. When he approached them with this idea, many of them were unfamiliar with the process to make it happen, but they were willing to work with Kummer.
“This (technology) is all very recent. We don’t know exactly what this will look like in the future,” Kummer said. “So if we’re going to give landowners an opportunity to have a seat at the table and be part of the decision-making, we know, we have to have regular conversations about where we are, where we’re going, what decisions we need to make. to make. It is very unique and provides a high level of comfort and confidence to the landowners who want to have a seat at the table.”
One of the landowners, Ron Rabou, said he sees this opportunity as a way to diversify income from his land.
Landowner Ron Rabou
Eastern Laramie County farmer and landowner Ron Rabou says he sees the Meriden Carbon opportunity as a way to diversify income from his land.
“A lot of the keys to survival and production agriculture are … we want to make sure that because we have this toolbox, that if there are additional tools that we can use to leverage those to diversify our operations, we want to make sure I’m sure we’ll look at that carefully. And if we identify that we think this will be a good way to diversify our business, and hopefully create some stability or diversity long-term, then we want to make sure that we take advantage of those opportunities.”
Rabou said it is especially important to take advantage of every opportunity in the toolbox in a climate like Wyoming’s, where water resources are limited, adverse weather conditions and elevation changes are not always friendly to agricultural production.
While he doesn’t expect this effort to change his bottom line so much that it will alter the normal operations of his farms, Rabou said he believes it will be a win-win for participating landowners and the companies looking to cut carbon emissions to establish.
Kummer said the going rate for carbon storage is typically between $85 and $180 per ton of CO2. He estimates that this asset will have between 100 and 150 million tonnes of net storage capacity across its 100,000 hectares, but this will be confirmed once Meriden Carbon has completed drilling and testing.
Since the inception of the Class VI well program in 2010, 11 applicants have been approved nationally, including two in Wyoming.
Meriden Carbon Steamboat Carbon Storage Hub
A map of the Steamboat Carbon Storage Hub, where Meriden Carbon plans to inject and store carbon emissions in southeastern Wyoming.
Meriden Carbon officials have yet to determine how they will transport the CO2 to the site for storage, but indicated they would likely build new carbon dioxide pipelines across the province to achieve this. Kummer said they also plan to work with existing infrastructure companies to tap into their pipeline systems.
For example, Tallgrass owns the Trailblazer pipeline, a natural gas pipeline being converted to a carbon dioxide pipeline that runs through most of Nebraska and part of southeastern Wyoming. Kummer said Tallgrass representatives have expressed support for the Meriden Carbon project and that he could work with them to transport carbon emissions from CO2 producers connected to the Trailblazer pipeline to their storage site.
Many experts consider carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) projects as one of the solutions to achieving the U.S. goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. The federal government has committed more than $8 billion in funding for CCUS projects between 2022 and 2026. .
Companies are incentivized to capture and store carbon by the Section 45Q federal tax credit, which pays companies $180 for every ton stored in the ground. This program reduced federal revenues by $1 billion between 2010 and 2019. The tax credit was significantly expanded in 2022, and staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation project said it will reduce federal revenues by $5 billion between 2023 and 2027.
Landowners of Meriden Carbon
Landowners meet to discuss plans for Meriden Carbon.
Kummer said he believes this project will support and possibly grow Wyoming’s coal industry.
“We are developing to keep Wyoming’s coal industry strong, and perhaps even help it grow, because capturing CO2 from new coal plants would be easier than retrofitting old ones,” Kummer said. “I’m not sure where we’re going, but if you look at the forecasts for energy demand in our country and around the world, we have a huge increase ahead of us.”
For Kummer, the next steps will be to begin drilling and seismic testing on the acreage next summer, with support from a Department of Energy grant. He expects to apply for a Class VI permit from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Equality in 2026 and possibly begin injections as early as late 2026 if the permit is approved.
He sees this partnership between landowners as a scalable business model and while Kummer has no current plans to expand, he said other landowners in Wyoming and some in New Mexico have expressed interest in this business model.
