Merit Energy is capturing CO2 emissions from a natural gas processing facility, and using it to replace the ground-sourced CO2 normally used in oil production.
 
Carbon dioxide is a necessary part of oil drilling; it is pumped into the ground to force the oil out. Traditionally, when a company needs CO2 for this purpose, it simply pumps it out of naturally occurring under-ground sources of CO2. At the same time, many energy facilities freely release CO2 into the atmosphere during their operations.
 
Linking these two issues, Merit Energy has developed an infrastructure to capture the atmospheric releases of CO2 emissions from the Shute Creek natural gas processing facility in Wyoming, and deliver it to oil production fields where it is sequestered below the earth’s surface. This prevents CO2 from being released into the atmosphere at two points: the vent-stack of the natural gas facility, and the underground CO2 reservoir from where the necessary CO2 would have been pumped.
 
These emissions reductions are available as certified carbon offsets on the American Carbon Registry.