Officials on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony included Ed Komarnicki, Member of Parliament for Souris — Moose Mountain, Saskatchewan Environment Minister Herb Cox, MLA Doreen Eagles, Estevan City Councilor Dennis Moore, and Reeve Kelly Lafrentz.
Based in Regina, the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) is responsible for all aspects of research and monitoring of the project. PTRC CEO Ken From is proud of the role that PTRC plays in building a centre of excellence for CO2 research, "Saskatchewan has become a real focal point of worldwide interest in CCS. The Aquistore project has brought together one of the largest arrays of research partners and expertise anywhere in the world to investigate the safe storage of CO2."
"Our government is pleased to have invested $14 million in this project as part of our efforts to protect the environment and develop Canada’s energy resources in a responsible manner", said MP Komarnicki. "This project, a first of its kind, demonstrates Canada’s global leadership in advancing carbon capture and storage."
"The Government of Saskatchewan committed five million dollars in funding to the development of the Aquistore injection and monitoring program," said Saskatchewan’s Environment Minister Herb Cox. "Safe, secure storage of CO2 will support SaskPower’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at Boundary Dam Unit 3 and other coal-fired power plants."
With the two deepest wells in Saskatchewan at 3400 metres each, Aquistore is both an important demonstration project and a critical research site and industrial laboratory. The project has partnerships or research projects with over 17 international organizations from seven different countries.
Aquistore’s research program is sponsored and supported by Natural Resources Canada’s ecoENERGY Technology Initiative (ecoETI) and through federal funding via Sustainable Development Technologies Canada, Korea’s National Oil Corporation, Enbridge, Consumers Co-operative Refinery Limited (CCRL), SaskPower, Schlumberger Carbon Services and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment.
These sponsor organizations and researchers are all invested in demonstrating that CO2 storage is both economically feasible and a safe, workable solution to reduce greenhouse gases.
