Carbon on the Move in Coffeyville Kansas
Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizers produces the lowest-cost, highest quality nitrogen fertilizer in North America - and also produces thousands of tons of CO2.
Located in Southeast Kansas, Coffeyville Resources is an independent petroleum refiner and marketer of high value transportation fuels in the mid-continental U.S. and, through a limited partnership, a producer of ammonia and urea ammonia nitrate, or UAN, fertilizers. At current natural gas prices, CVR’s nitrogen fertilizer business is the lowest cost producer and marketer of ammonia and UAN in North America.
This process of creating nitrogen fertilizer involves the gasification of the petroleum coke to make synthetic natural gas for use in the production. This process creates CO2, some of which is used in the manufacturing of the fertilizers, but approximately 40,000 Mcf/d of CO2 is vented into the atmosphere.
Blue Source is working with Coffeyville Resources to permanently sequester this excess CO2 in oil fields in Oklahoma and Kansas. This sequestration process will transport and permanently inject the CO2 in geologic formations where it will remain for millions of years. This injection of CO2 enables local oil producers to recover another 10% - 15% of the oil that would otherwise be left behind, thus reducing the amount of oil that must be imported. Through utilizing what is traditionally considered a waste stream of CO2, we can recover incremental oil from old reservoirs for another 15-20 years, both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and utilizing our nation’s natural resources effectively.
By capturing and sequestering this CO2, this project will reduce GHG emissions by more than 650,000 tonnes per year.
A key economic component to making this project a reality is the creation of Verified Emission Reductions (VERs), or carbon offsets. Through the sale of offsets, Coffeyville can voluntarily reduce its negative environmental impact now. This carbon capture and storage project exemplifies how we can lower the emissions of CO2 by using oil revenues to help pay for a portion of the CO2 pipeline infrastructure.
