Weyerhaeuser, the lumber-manufacturing firm with major operations in southeast Oklahoma announced an agreement with pipeline operator Denbury Inc. to consider development of a CO2 sequestration site in Mississippi.
The lease agreement provides Denbury with the exclusive right to develop and operate approximately 16,000 acres of subsurface pore space owned by Weyerhaeuser in Simpson and Copiah Counties in Mississippi. The site is located directly adjacent to Denbury’s NEJD Pipeline in Mississippi, approximately 35 miles south of the company’s Jackson Dome field.
Denbury is planning to utilize the site to permanently sequester industrial CO2 in secure underground geologic formations. Weyerhaeuser will continue to manage the timberland acreage as a sustainable working forest.
Denbury estimates the site will have total sequestration capacity of approximately 275 million metric tons of CO2. The site represents Denbury’s first planned CO2 sequestration location in Mississippi, expanding its storage portfolio that already includes sites along the U.S. Gulf Coast in Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Denbury intends to drill a stratigraphic test well on the site in 2023 to support the Company’s geologic interpretation and progress Class VI permitting with the EPA.
The lease agreement demonstrates Weyerhaeuser’s continued progress on its previously announced plan to grow its Natural Climate Solutions business, including through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), forest carbon offsets, renewable energy development, mitigation solutions and conservation. Weyerhaeuser has identified multiple locations for potential sequestration projects across a portion of its 7-million-acre footprint in the U.S. South using proprietary geological data covering its lands.
Russell Hagen, Weyerhaeuser’s Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, commented, “This agreement represents another important milestone in the growth of our CCS business, and it supports our broader commitment to sustainability and providing natural climate solutions across our land base. We are excited to partner on this project with Denbury and unlock the option value created when combining our uniquely positioned acreage and subsurface ownership with high-quality developers of CCS projects in the Gulf South.”
Source: press release