Author:
Former President/CEO
International CCS Knowledge Centre
Mike Monea,
Former President/CEO
International CCS Knowledge Centre
Michael (Mike) Monea grew up in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada with a passion for geology which has fuelled his career path to date. He holds designations as a Professional Engineer, Professional Geoscientist and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors. His entrepreneurial vision is the root of his past successes in developing companies and overseeing the construction of megaprojects.
Mike is the former President and CEO of the International CCS Knowledge Centre a non-profit organization which he helped to establish with BHP Billiton and SaskPower. This new initiative represents a culmination of Mike’s hard work as the president of Carbon capture and storage initiatives at SaskPower where he was in charge of creating and building the world’s first carbon capture plant for a coal electric unit valued at $1.5 billion CDN.
As a world-leading scientist, research and development is a key component in Mike’s mission to help reduce greenhouse gases through CCS technologies. His oversight of a scale-sized Carbon Capture Test Facility has ensured that progress continues to be made with international vendors on post-combustion capture systems. Progress gained in these areas can help reduce costs and advance CCS.
Mike’s past experience in oil and gas has allowed him to understand the benefits of and opportunities for carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and deep saline reservoir storage. Mike secured sales of CO2 from the Boundary Dam CCS Facility to oil fields in Southern Saskatchewan. Early on in his professional career he was trained in oil and gas operations in United States and went on to create two oil and gas companies, Nautilus Exploration and Associated Ltd. (in 1982) and Flatland Exploration Ltd. (in 1999). He had the opportunity to develop EOR procedures as the head of the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC), amongst other processes for the oil and gas industry.
Throughout his career, Mike has understood the importance of partnerships at a local, national and international level. In 2006, Mike formed a Chinese investment company and since then has worked with most power, oil and regulatory agencies in China on CCS knowledge transfer. Mike has travelled the world speaking on CCS and is a sought-after panellist and advisor for this ground-breaking technology.
Mike is now the President of the Monea-CCS Services Ltd.
On Monday December 4, 2017, I had the opportunity to present at the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) in Abu Dhabi to provide an overview of the accomplishm
ents at the International CCS Knowledge Centre's Global CCS Symposium, held earlier in the fall in Regina, Saskatchewan. The group was impressed with the positive advancements in bringing together countries and organzations that have significant experience in operating large scale CCUS projects, such as BD3, Aquistore, Quest, Petro-Nova, amoung others with countries early in their learning curve. The CSLF is encouraged by the inclusiveness of the Knowledge Centre on perspectives of key developing countries as well as progress with developments in China.
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What is the CSLF?
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The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) is a Ministerial-level international climate change initiative that is focused on the development of improved cost-effective technologies for CCS. It also promotes awareness and champions legal, regulatory, financial, and institutional environments conducive to such technologies. More info about the CSLF.
CCUS Developments in China
I am now in Bejing, China - where we will be furthe
ring our relationship and commitment to support China to optimize CCUS to meet Paris Targets. Our work in China has been active - earlier in the 2017, we signed two MOUs (click here for details). I have had the honour to host Mr. Sun, the Deputy Director General from the National Development and Reform Commission for Climate Change at our Symposium in October.
While I was at the COP23, in Bonn Germany last month, I had the distinct opportunity to participate on a panel in the China pavilion. As a very large emitter, China is at a turning point to deal with some of the climate issues that they are seeing and experiencing. We, at the International CCS Knowledge Centre can help them derisk and reduce cost with lessons learned in commercial CCUS - thereby reducing greenhouse gases emission while ensuring reliable energy for their country. More to come later on in the week.
