GE and Sargas AS Announce Alliance for Enhanced Oil Recovery

GE (NYSE: GE) today announced it has concluded a commercial alliance agreement with Norway-based Sargas AS to provide a gas turbine for one of the world’s first gas-fired plants with integrated carbon capture for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

 

The Sargas plant will combine a configuration of the existing LMS100 aeroderivative gas turbine package from GE with Sargas’ patented combustion and carbon-capture technology enabling low emissions power generation. The technology provided by Sargas captures carbon dioxide (CO2) at pressure, which requires lower capital investment costs and can be built quickly with existing or slightly modified subsystems and equipment. The Sargas power plant delivers significantly lower costs of electricity and captured CO2 per ton and therefore enables the Sargas-led engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) consortium to offer industrial-scale volumes of economically competitive CO2 for EOR applications worldwide.

 

GE’s LMS100 turbine is a combination of proven frame and aeroderivative gas turbine technology and represents the most extensive collaborations of design and manufacturing expertise in the history of GE, delivering unparalleled efficiency. In combination, the new configuration of the LMS100 in the Sargas plant can capture CO2 for EOR with high efficiency and low parasitic load.

 

Announcing the Alliance, Sargas’ Chief Executive Henrik Fleischer said, “Traditional EOR supplies of naturally occurring carbon dioxide stored underground is running out, and with oil prices expected to remain above $80/bbl it is important for oil companies to maximize oil production with enhanced oil recovery. Traditionally, carbon capture for gas-fired turbine plants relied on government subsidies and advanced technology research. Our solution, in combination with GE technology, will revolutionize the worldwide energy industry providing carbon capture in both a flexible and affordable way for greater energy independence through EOR. It also offers low-emissions electricity, in a proven and practical manner. Sargas is fortunate in being able to partner with best-in-class industrial giants including DSME of Korea.”

 

DSME President & CEO Jaeho Ko greeted the announcement with enthusiasm for its potential to significantly enable a growing EOR industry and positively impact global climate change policy and interventions. He said, "We are very much delighted that GE has entered into an alliance with Sargas. GE’s standing in the global turbine and power sector is unparalleled. We have developed the new CO2 technology with Sargas over the last three years and have strong confidence that this new technology will make a fundamental contribution to the immediate deployment of economic cleaner energy. DSME is a leading EPC constructor in the shipping and oil and gas sectors with over 35,000 personnel and $11 billion in annual sales. We at DSME are committed to the cleaner energy sector thanks to this flagship technology and stand ready to make this joint vision come true.”

 

On the alliance, Darryl Wilson, president and CEO—Aeroderivative gas turbines for GE Power & Water stated, “As one of the world’s most efficient gas turbines, GE’s LMS100 is an optimal solution for a pressurized carbon capture plant for EOR applications. The three-shaft system architecture of the LMS100 enables adaptability for use in a carbon capture EOR application. The LMS100 provides a highly efficient production of pressurized flue gas that empowers Sargas technology. EOR with compressed CO2 has been used for more than 30 years, but with an increased demand expected and with natural underground sources of CO2 being exhausted, there is an increased need for new sources. This new alliance between GE and Sargas can help promote energy independence through development of oil fields in the United States.”  

 

 

Sargas is a Norwegian solution provider in the field of carbon capture technology and EOR with offices in Norway, Sweden, Korea and the USA. Sargas pressurized CO2 capture technologies require lower amounts of energy to capture CO2 from flue gas, which will revolutionize carbon capture for EOR in large scale. Sargas owns global patents and a best-in-class industrial solution, offering solutions for natural gas, coal and biomass applications.

Sargas has also created an alliance with world-leading companies Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering co. Ltd. (DSME) and SNC-Lavalin. DSME is a leading fabricator and constructor in the shipping, oil and power sectors with over 35,000 employees and $11 billion in annual sales. SNC-Lavalin is a Canadian headquartered company that will manage the process and provide EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) expertise to the alliance. Sargas and partners focus on business cases providing such plants in conjunction with EOR, thereby creating a total value chain from electricity sales, power plant production, Co2 logistics and sale to boost oil productions.  Started in 1973, DSME has since grown into the world's premium shipbuilding and offshore contractor who is specialized in building various vessels, offshore platforms, drilling rigs, FPSO/FPUs, submarines and destroyers. 

 

 

Defining a new era of flexible power generation, GE’s revolutionary LMS100 provides a single, economical solution for the dispatch needs of nearly every market condition. With unparalleled efficiency, 10-minute start times, unmatched hot day performance, load following and cycling capabilities, the LMS100 is the ideal solution for power generation planners and developers in a variety of load cycles from peak power to base load. The LMS100 is a GE ecomagination product enabling grid stability and load following of wind and solar solutions.