NRG Breaks Ground On World’s Largest Carbon Capture Facility

In Fort Bend County, NRG Energy and JX Nippon Oil & Gas are breaking ground today on the world’s largest carbon capture facility. The project will trap greenhouse gases from a power plant before they can leak into the atmosphere, then use them to boost production in an aging oil field.

The coal-burning W.A. Parish plant is one of the nation’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. The companies say their new facility will capture 90 percent of the plant’s CO₂ emissions. They’ll then pipe the CO₂ more than 80 miles away to the West Ranch Field in Victoria. The gas will be pumped a mile underground at high pressure and used to free oil trapped in rock formations.

“Currently, from conventional operation, West Ranch is producing around 500 barrels of oil a day,” says Arun Banskota, CEO of Petra Nova, NRG’s wholly owned carbon-capture business. “Once we are able to get carbon dioxide into the West Ranch oil field, that field will produce something in the range of 15,000 barrels a day.”

The project marks the first time an existing coal-fired power plant is being refitted with coal-gas capture technology. Construction is expected to take about two years.

An illustration of how the new carbon capture facility will capture CO2 from the W.A. Parish power plant.