Chevron Refinery

The Chevron refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi

Chevron says it’s starting to build a system that will collect carbon dioxide at its Pascagoula refinery, send it through a pipeline to a spot north of Vancleave, and store it deep underground forever.

This is something rare for South Mississippi and for the world.

Only about 45 commercial carbon capture facilities are operating globally, with 19 of them in the United States. Another 132 are in advanced development.

A one page website fact sheet gives the basics about carbon capture and how Chevron is taking steps to protect people and the environment as it looks at site selection, design, development and operations of the Pascagoula Refinery Carbon Capture and Storage project in South Mississippi.

It doesn’t answer people’s questions about how the carbon dioxide will get from Pascagoula to Vancleave, where the storage injection site will be, and if the process will affect drinking water sources in Jackson County.

The project is something residents of the northern parts of Jackson County talk about when they meet around town and comment on in private groups on Facebook.

They’ve met with Chevron representatives individually and in groups. They don’t want their names on the record as being for or against the project — and those who signed an agreement with Chevron are prohibited from disclosing the terms.

Representatives of Chevron agreed to provide the Sun Herald more specific details to answer some of those questions.

What is carbon capture?

The Pascagoula refinery is Chevron’s largest in the United States, manufacturing nearly 7 million gallons of gasoline daily. The process creates carbon dioxide, and removing it from the air reduces emissions and the impact on climate and warming.

The carbon dioxide is captured at the refinery rather than going into the air. It’s typically compressed and transported by pipeline to the site where it will remain. In recent years, Chevron has reduced the amount of carbon it emits and is investing $10 billion company-wide from 2022-2028 toward hydrogen and carbon capture.

How will the carbon dioxide be transported?

By road, it’s 38 miles from the refinery on the water in Pascagoula to the northern reaches of Jackson County. Instead of running the pipeline due north to low population areas near Hurley, the storage site is expected to be west of there, near Mississippi 57.

“We expect to proceed generally north from Pascagoula and then west toward the sequestration site,” said Jennifer Wilding, general manager of asset Development for Chevron Energy Solutions.

The company said it’s too early to provide the exact route, but said the pipeline will follow mostly existing rights of way for pipelines and utilities.

Whether the pipeline will run on the surface or be buried will be determined as the project continues, but Wilding said Chevron takes the safest approach. While the shorter line is less costly, she said, Chevron will consider various conditions and try to minimize the impacts.

Where will the storage site be?

“The injection site, I believe, is in more than likely in Jackson County,” Wilding said. While the company is still working to determine the best site, Chevron has contacted property owners around Wire Road and close to the Jackson-George county line.

“I don’t want to give the impression that we’re in Vancleave proper. We’re quite a bit away from that,” said Kevin Peters, land manager for Chevron New Energies. “It will be up more toward the county line where there’s less population.”

The carbon dioxide will be injected into pore space that could be 8,000 feet below ground. The gas flows between the grains, or pore space, and becomes trapped there. The company looks for thick reservoirs with lots of granular fragments and a high capacity for flow, such as sands from ancient, buried beaches.

How are property owners notified?

Chevron is meeting with landowners to secure rights for the underground storage far beneath their property and any surface use that is required.

“There are many different agreement types, and each negotiation we have with landowners is a little bit different,” Peters said “On the storage side, we have been out in the field over the last 18 months now talking to landowners,” he said. “We’ve been very successful signing up a significant number of landowners.”

What’s in the agreements?

The contracts allow Chevron to terminate the lease by giving the landowner 30 day’s written notice. The contract also continues as long as is necessary for Chevron to monitor the sequestered substances, the equipment and protocols.

Property owners who sign the agreement could receive a one-time payment of a negotiated amount per acre and a monthly fee based on how much carbon dioxide is injected. Should the property be sold, the agreement with Chevron must transfer to the new owner.

Safety concerns

Residents on private Facebook sites said they are most concerned with whether the water aquifers they use for their well water will be contaminated by the gas and if there will be enough safety features in place to protect their families.

Chevron says it is safely operating Gorgon, one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage projects.

The sequestration site in South Mississippi would be 1,000 feet deeper than the underground sources of drinking water, Chevron said, and a cap will keep the carbon dioxide from escaping to the surface.

The site also will be in an area with low risk of earthquakes, Chevron said.

Carbon dioxide is an inert gas and not flammable — and in smaller amounts in used in carbonated beverages. Still, there are some risks, which is why the sequestration site will be away from population areas.

Leaking carbon dioxide could be a hazard, and at high concentrations can cause breathing difficulties or suffocation, according to British Geological Survey.

That risk is lowered with a well-selected, well-designed and well-managed geological storage site, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The pipeline and storage facility must receive a Class 6 permit from the federal Environmental Protection Agency or a state agency that must follow all the same EPA rules.

Chevron is working through all the requirements, including those that protect public health and underground sources of drinking water.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have supported carbon capture, but the Trump administration last week cut $3.7 billion in funding for it.

The top priority is to reduce the emissions for the Chevron Pascagoula refinery, the company said, but the system also has the potential to help reduce emissions from other industries in the South Mississippi area.

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