Energy Analytics Financial Services

CCUS: Separating winners from losers

byIan Nieboer

The Inflation Reduction Act supercharged activity along the carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) value chain and accelerated the race to secure partnerships with emitters and landowners for CO2 storage. As excitement turns to action, attention is shifting to evaluating risks along the value chain and to the factors that will distinguish successful projects. Enverus’ Energy Transition Research* (ETR) team’s “Carbon Management Trifecta” provides a rubric to identify winning and losing strategies.

What is the “Carbon Management Trifecta”?

The carbon management trifecta (Figure 1) describes the combination of factors that contribute to winning CCUS strategies. Successful projects require access to favorable conditions across three dimensions:

  • Superior asset quality.
  • Innovation ecosystems.
  • Supportive partners.
diagram-showing-carbon-management-trifecta
FIGURE 1 | Carbon management trifecta.

Superior asset quality

To achieve superior asset quality, the combined cost of CO2 capture, transportation and storage is sufficiently low and the potential scale is sufficiently large, creating an economic source-to-sink value chain. Variation across each dimension is extreme. For example, ETR’s analysis shows only 1% of Appalachia emissions can be captured below $50/tonne, versus 65% in Louisiana.

Subsurface analysis of Louisiana’s Oligocene-Miocene Sands and Appalachia’s Oriskany Sandstone reveal even larger differences in storage potential (Figure 2). Only 1% of Appalachian storage potential in the Oriskany breaks even below $85/tonne, versus around 100% in Oligocene-Miocene Sands of Southern Louisiana.

subsurface-evaluation-of-carbon-storage-potential
FIGURE 2 | Subsurface evaluation of Southern Louisiana and Appalachian carbon storage potential.

Innovation ecosystems

Innovation ecosystems connect the policies, regulations, access to capital and business models available to support a commercial CCUS project. For example, the emissions profile of Pennsylvania (Appalachia) is dominated by power generation and emissions reduction targets could be addressed with zero-emission power sources. Louisiana’s emission profile, in contrast, contains a larger share of hard to abate sources and likely will require negative emission solutions like CCUS. Faster adoption rates, strong emissions targets and a streamlined permitting process are examples of how a strong innovation ecosystem accelerates the learning curve and increases efficiencies.

Supportive partners

Supportive partners refers to the relationships with the various stakeholders impacted by the project, such as operators in the value chain, the general public, investors, landowners and government. For example, ETR’s analysis shows Louisiana pore space ownership is far less fragmented than in Appalachia (Figure 3), simplifying the owner relationships and minimizing associated execution risk.

map-showing-pore-space-ownership
FIGURE 3 | Pore space ownership in Southern Louisiana and Appalachia.

Each week Enverus Intelligence® | Energy Transition Research analysts spotlight our favorite ideas in Energy Transition Today. Sign up here to have it sent to your inbox.

To learn more visit the link below to watch our on-demand webinar: CCUS: Everything and the Carbon Sink.

*About Enverus Intelligence®| Energy Transition Research.
Enverus Intelligence Research, Inc. (EIR) is a subsidiary of Enverus and publishes energy-sector research that focuses on the oil and natural gas industries and broader energy topics including publicly traded and privately held oil, gas, midstream and other energy industry companies, basin studies (including characteristics, activity, infrastructure, etc.), commodity pricing forecasts, global macroeconomics and geopolitical matters. Energy Transition Research is [a research division of EIR focused on {Ian N. description}]. See www.enverus.com/disclosures for additional information.

Picture of Ian Nieboer

Ian Nieboer

Ian leads the Enverus Intelligence - Energy Transition Research team. Previously, Ian worked in product management roles in Enverus’ growing ESG business, leading Enverus’ Global (International) Energy Analytics business and as a publishing analyst with Enverus’ Intelligence - Oil & Gas Research team where he helped investors and asset owners navigate the energy market. Over his career he has covered operators and assets (both conventional and unconventional) across North America and around the Atlantic rim. In addition to publishing frequent research notes, Ian delivers conference presentations, television interviews and advisory mandates for corporate and institutional clients.

Subscribe to the Enverus Blog

A weekly update on the latest “no-fluff” insight and analysis of the energy industry.

Related Content

data-center-demand
Energy Transition
ByAdam Robinson, Enverus Intelligence® | Research (EIR) Contributor

The Texas Tech University (TTU) System and Fermi America announced an 11 GW data center powered by a mix of natural gas, utility grid power, solar, wind and nuclear energy. The newly founded power company is building one of the...

Enverus Press Release - Enverus PRISM® now available for Europe
Trading and Risk
ByKiana Cruz

EVOLVE 2025 brought together leading voices across energy trading, analytics and clean fuels to unpack today’s most pressing market dynamics. From evolving benchmarks to retail analytics, one thing rang loud and clear: adaptation isn’t optional, it’s strategic. We attended four...

Black-lady-with-powerline
Energy Transition
ByCorianna Mah, Enverus Intelligence® Research

A massive heat dome swept across the eastern U.S. last week, driving temperatures into the triple digits and pushing the PJM Interconnection grid to its highest peak load since 2006.

Enverus Press Release - Redesigning ancillary markets: Reliability in a renewable future
Power and Renewables
ByRobin Grathwohl

Are you struggling to find substations with real injection potential? In this blog, you’ll learn how developers use planning models and historical ATC data in PRISM to identify viable POIs, avoid costly surprises in the queue and confidently move forward...

Enverus Press Release - Upstream M&A sails on with $30 billion in 2Q24
Minerals
ByEnverus

Digital oilfield advances have transformed many facets of the energy enterprise, yet when it comes to partner data sharing, the industry is stuck in a rut. Sensitive financial data and personally identifiable information (PII) are routinely sent to working interest,...

Class VI applications signal slowdown
Energy Transition
ByAmyra Mardhani

The U.S. Senate proposed amendments to the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, increasing the 45Q tax credit for CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from $60 to $85/tonne, matching the rate for permanent sequestration. From an economic standpoint, this shift could have...

Enverus Press Release - Tapping Alberta’s overlooked lithium brines
Oilfield Services
ByAdriana Bickford

The sun rises on a wellsite in North Dakota where hydraulic fracturing operations have been running through the night. A line of water-hauling trucks idles nearby, keeping a steady supply flowing downhole. Handwritten field tickets for those loads exchange hands,...

GettyImages-1148355005
Analyst Takes Blog Topics
ByAl Salazar, Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR) Contributor

In reaction to news of U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Al Salazar, director at Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR), released this statement explaining the significance on oil prices:

field-representative
Oilfield Services
ByAdriana Bickford

Ask any oilfield operations manager what slows down invoicing and you’ll hear it every time: submitting field tickets from the job site to the office. These tickets are the handshake confirming work was done, but when they’re trapped on paper,...

Let’s get started!

We’ll follow up right away to show you a quick product tour.

Let’s get started!

We’ll follow up right away to show you a quick product tour.

Sign up for our Blog

Register Today

Sign Up

Power Your Insights

Connect with an Expert

Access Product Tour

Speak to an Expert