Celebrating Louisiana’s Energy Leadership
Last week local, state and federal leaders joined ExxonMobil and LSU to celebrate Louisiana’s energy future. A panel comprised of academic, policy and regulatory experts provided valuable insight on how the state’s more than $50 billion in future carbon capture and storage related investments are creating educational and economic opportunities for Louisiana residents.
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy addressed the importance of Louisiana’s role in low-carbon energy production.
“For over 100 years Louisiana has been the center of the energy industry,” Sen. Cassidy said. "The state Legislature has done a really good job of voting unanimously for things that respect the fact that future market conditions will require our companies to lower their carbon intensity.”
The event aligned with the LSU College of Engineering’s announcement that it will begin drilling a new research well at its PERTT—Petroleum Engineering Research, Training, and Testing—Lab on campus. This new, one-of-its-kind well will enable students, researchers, regulators, and industry to study CO2 in all three of its phases under realistic field conditions. Research will include testing and developing safety and monitoring technologies, understanding CO2 flow behavior in various downhole conditions, and validating the predictions of computer models or bench-scale experiments at the field scale. The well is a collaboration with ExxonMobil and Halliburton.
"Demonstration scale research is part of what’s so unique here,” Dr. Karsten, Professor, LSU Department of Petroleum Engineering, said. "There are lab benches and pilot scale facilities all over the world. This is very unique, especially at an academic institution, to be able to do that scale of research.”
“One of the ways we’re making low carbon solutions work is through carbon capture and storage. The research well we’re developing here is going to have a tremendous influence on our ability to test technologies and uses that can be put into industry,” said Dominic Genetti, senior vice president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “It’s not just experimental. Today, we have five definitive third-party customers. I’m proud to say that our first customers are located right here in Louisiana. This is a great place to do business, so we’re proud of the partnership and this laboratory. It’s going to be a tremendous advantage for Louisiana and for us in industry.”
During the panel discussion, Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources Secretary Tyler Gray spoke about the agency’s work to ensure robust regulatory permitting for Class VI wells, which are required to store carbon dioxide. Ensuring companies applying for permits are safe operators is key, according to Gray.
"The way the petrochemical industry grows in Louisiana is through carbon capture, utilization and storage,” Sec. Gray said. "The expertise we have here, along with the history, puts us in a position to be very good at it.”
Gray also highlighted his department’s collaboration with Louisiana Economic Development (LED) as there is great opportunity to attract global investment to Louisiana and support domestic energy security through carbon capture and sequestration infrastructure.
“This research well is an extraordinary opportunity not only for students to gain hands on experience and develop the skills to thrive in the energy industry of the future, but also to help us,” Paige Carter, Director of Business Development for LED, said. “We’ve established an interagency agreement between DENR and LED to build a more prosperous and sustainable Louisiana.”
Leaders underscored the need to better inform the public about CCS, and the important role that state and local leaders, regulatory agencies, companies and universities can have in communication.
“Research and partnership is critical. It will help draw industry here and it will help us be better legislators and do what we do right,” Rep. Geymann said. “Our goal was to be number one, to be the best at it and to have every other state look at Louisiana as a model.”
Collaboration between the public and private sector has been a key theme of this new research well, which stems from LSU’s participation in the H2theFuture project that provided funding from the U.S. Economic Development Agency and Louisiana Economic Development. ExxonMobil is working in close collaboration with the Engineering College and Halliburton on the well design and is currently focused on the drilling plan, which outlines the project’s timeline up to the “spudding” of the well, or start of drilling operations. As the drilling operator, ExxonMobil will leverage its industry expertise in wells designed for CO2 capture and storage. The company also plans to work with LSU on community engagement and education related to the energy transition.
“Projects like this are setting the example of what a public private partnership looks like,” U.S Congresswoman Julia Letlow said. "That is going to transform the state of Louisiana.”