GILLETTE, Wyo. — The Petroleum Association of Wyoming announced in a news release today that it has launched the Wyoming Carbon Innovation Network to support the growth of the state’s carbon management industry while ensuring the existing oil and natural gas industry continues to flourish.
“Recent analysis indicates that Wyoming’s oil and natural gas industry employs over 19,000 people and brings over $8 billion in economic activity to our state,” the release said. “Carbon management is an emerging component of Wyoming’s critical energy industries, and the Network will focus on strategic goals intended to bring new jobs and new economic opportunities to Wyoming’s already strong energy industries.”
Frontier Carbon Solutions General Counsel and VP Land Erik Holt and Oil Mountain Energy President Julie Martinez will co-chair the network, which seeks to advocate for the carbon management industry, collaborate with and guide state agencies in advancing carbon management, build knowledge and capacity in carbon management for existing operators, and foster recruitment and networking for the carbon management industry.
Holt said the state’s leaders and agencies have been forward-thinking in building a constructive regulatory framework to make carbon management a critical part of the country’s evolving energy portfolio. With its geologic storage space and workforce, the state is a leader in industrial carbon management in North America.
In September, Gov. Mark Gordon approved an Energy Matching Fund award for a project that the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources and Frontier are partnering on: the Sweetwater Carbon Storage Hub project. Frontier owns the hub, and the project is supposed to help prove large-scale carbon sequestration in southwestern Wyoming is appropriate through finishing preparations for permitting Class VI wells.
“As a Wyoming-born small business owner and resident, I know first-hand that our State will benefit from becoming the leader in carbon management by creating additional jobs and economic activity for our communities while supporting traditional energy industries like oil, gas, and coal,” Martinez said.
She said her company’s lack of carbon capture and utilization projects allows impartiality.
“I know this work will allow our industry, as well as my company and the hundreds of other small Wyoming-owned and operated oil and gas companies, to continue to support our communities and families for generations to come,” she said.
Businesses and individuals in the carbon management industry can join the network. For more information, contact Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller at pete@pawyo.org.
The association’s members produce 90% of Wyoming’s oil and gas and employ more than 19,000 Wyomingites.
