FutureGen focus on Odessa

With the home for FutureGen expected to be named as soon as Dec. 17, interest in the $1.5 billion project is building dramatically.

Odessa, one of the four remaining sites nationwide vying to host the near-zero emissions coal-fired power plant, is finding itself in the national spotlight more and more.

Bob Secter, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, got a firsthand look Wednesday at the site near Penwell and spent a good part of the day talking with local FutureGen supporters, including Neil McDonald, an economic development consultant for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce.

His reaction afterward? “This is pretty impressive.”

Secter, who has also toured the two sites in Illinois at Mattoon and Tuscola, said the national competition to host the FutureGen facility has become almost a “coal state versus the oil state.”

And while he seemed to come away with a positive impression of the Permian Basin’s bid for the near-zero emission, coal-fired power plant, he wasn’t ready to pick a winner.

“It doesn’t look like the FutureGen Alliance is going to go wrong any way they go,” he said.

During his tour of the mesquite-covered site, McDonald and FutureGen Project Coordinator Hoxie Smith explained the advantages of the site, including close proximity to high power electric lines for power transmission, existing roads and those to be constructed, water resources, the adjacent Union Pacific railroad lines and Interstate 20.

McDonald said he felt like the tour went well.

“I think he will leave with a better appreciation for the oil industry and the expertise of the people who work in it,” McDonald said. “I also think he was impressed with the volunteers working in this effort.”

After the tour of the 600-acre site near Penwell, Secter was taken to the Energen Resources facility near Penwell.

There, Energen senior production foreman Mark Brin explained the process of injecting carbon dioxide into wells to increase oil production.

Brin told Secter that Energen is now injecting 400 to 500 barrels of CO2 into each of 13 wells there each day, substantiating the Permian Basin FutureGen Task Force’s contention that carbon dioxide is not a waste product, but a commodity that can make the FutureGen facility economically viable if it is located in Penwell.

Brin noted that a large number of wells in the Penwell field that had been watered out and were not producing oil have been brought back to production with CO2 flooding. He said there is a strong demand for more CO2 in the oil industry today.

The FutureGen power plant will be operated on “clean coal” technology, and is intended to be the world’s first near-zero emissions fossil fuel power plant. The Department of Energy power plant will have two major components:

>> To build an energy facility that will create power and hydrogen and capture carbon dioxide (CO2).

>> To sequester in an underground saline aquifer the CO2 permanently.

While the Odessa site for the FutureGen plant is located near Penwell in western Ector County, the CO2 produced there would be shipped through an existing pipeline structure to Pecos County where it would be sequestered underground on University of Texas lands outside of Fort Stockton.

Before his tour, Secter was given an overview of the FutureGen effort for Odessa and the local support it has received not only from the Odessa community but the entire Permian Basin region.

Secter isn’t the only media person to take note of the Odessa area. McDonald said he has also been contacted by Fox News. Other media outlets across the country have also been following the FutureGen story, putting Odessa front and center as one of four finalists.

Although the FutureGen Alliance hasn’t set an official date for the announcement of the FutureGen home, McDonald and other local officials have speculated that it could come no sooner than Dec. 17, the first open date following the required period for public comment following the determination of the four final sites.

In what chamber officials are calling a coincidence; a 10 a.m. meeting on Dec. 18 at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin’s CEED Building could have such dignitaries as Gov. Rick Perry, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in attendance.

The Dec. 18 event is designed to mark the announcement of state funding for Falcon International Inc., an armament company opening up shop in Odessa. Falcon is getting state money from the Emerging Technology Fund, a state initiative that Perry has pushed hard.

Gary Vest, who on Jan. 1 will take over McDonald’s former position as economic development director of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, is coordinating the Dec. 18 event. Vest said Craddick had indicated he would attend, although media representatives for Perry and Dewhurst said neither official had a trip to Odessa scheduled for that date.

Vest said competition for Emerging Technology Fund money was intensive with only 10 projects being funded out of a prospective list of 600.

If the FutureGen Alliance, which had a major meeting Monday in Washington, D.C., makes an announcement Dec. 17, the Dec, 18 event could take on a whole new dimension.

Local officials seem very optimistic of Odessa’s chances. In fact, Mayor Larry Melton, who welcomed Secter to Odessa, even joked around with the Chicago newspaper reporter.

“I want to invite you back for the celebration we have when FutureGen chooses the Odessa site,” Melton told him.