Published: June 3, 2021 |

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Houston-based Piñon Midstream has started construction on a new sour gas and carbon capture facility in Lea County, according to a news release.

The facility, which is expected to be operational by July, will be able to treat 85 million cubic feet of sour gas per day, according to Justin Bennett, chief commercial officer of Piñon Midstream. Piñon didn’t disclose the cost of the project.

Located 5 miles from the Texas-New Mexico border, the Dark Horse facility will treat gas for carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide — both of which are harmful to the environment — and send them down a sequestration well that is 18,000 feet below the earth’s surface. The process in which hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide are removed from gas is called amine treating.

“I think it’s important to really point out that we’re not only pulling these harmful gases out of the gas stream but we’re sequestering them permanently 18,000 feet below the earth’s surface. So that’s where these gases were created naturally — and we’re putting them back where they came from,” Bennett told Business First.

Piñon co-founder and President Steven Green said sequestering hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide can be more environmentally friendly.

“Not only does our project provide a comprehensive solution for sequestering CO2 and H2S, it also substantially reduces flaring and greenhouse gas emissions in southeast New Mexico,” Green said in a prepared statement.

The treated gas — otherwise known as sweet gas — is sent to gas processors, before being sent to a downstream market for sale. The pipeline connecting Piñon’s facility to gas processors is also under construction and is about 15 miles long, Bennett said.

Bennett said Geolex Inc., an Albuquerque-based company, did the work on the sequestration well at the Dark Horse facility.

While the first facility is underway, a second facility is also in the works, Bennett said. Once the second facility is completed, which is expected by September, the company will be able to treat around 170 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Other producers in the oil and gas industry in New Mexico have been finding ways to reduce carbon emissions, too.

EOG Resources, which operates in New Mexico and other states across the country, built an 8-megawatt solar array that powers motor-driven compressors to help gas move through the pipeline, Creighton Welch, a spokesman for the company, told Business First. The company has also tested “closed loop gas capture,” which helps minimize flaring during a downstream interruption.

Piñon Midstream is a relatively new company, getting its start in 2020 in partnership with New Orleans-based private equity firm Black Bay Energy Capital.

Source: Albuquerque Business Journal

About Piñon Midstream
Piñon Midstream, LLC was formed in 2020 by midstream veterans Steven Green and Justin Bennett to provide a viable solution to the sour gas problem in the northeastern Delaware Basin. Formed with financial backing from Black Bay Energy Capital and supported by underwriting commitments from Ameredev II, Piñon delivers a full menu of sour gas services that include field gathering and compression, sour condensate stabilization and marketing, amine treating for removal of H2S and CO2, H2S and CO2 geologic sequestration, and high-pressure delivery of treated sweet gas to multiple area third-party processing plants.

To stop by Piñon’s website, CLICK HERE

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