GE and Sargas announce alliance for enhanced oil recovery

General Electric yesterday announced it concluded a commercial alliance agreement with Norway-based Sargas AS to provide a gas turbine for one of the world's first gas-fired plants with integrated carbon capture for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
The Sargas plant will combine a configuration of the existing LMS100 aeroderivative gas turbine package from GE with Sargas' patented combustion and carbon-capture technology enabling low emissions power generation.

Carbon capture is a process that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants, and then stored so it does not enter the atmosphere. 

GE's LMS100 turbine is a combination of proven frame and aeroderivative gas turbine technology and represents one of the most extensive collaborations of design and manufacturing expertise in the history of GE, delivering unparalleled efficiency. In combination, the new configuration of the LMS100 in the Sargas plant can capture CO2 for EOR with high efficiency and low parasitic load.

Sargas's proposal to re-engineer Delimara power station

Last year, the Norwegian firm proposed the construction of a new power plant with carbon capture technology that can run on either gas or 'biopaste', to complement the existing Delimara power station extension that will run on heavy fuel oil.

The Maltese government had commissioned an audit firm, KPMG, to conduct a feasibility study on the proposed power plant by Sargas since "it had experience in the energy field".

However, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had told MaltaToday that the study hadn't yet been concluded.

A public controversy had ensued after Sargas's proposal. However, the proposal was championed by the Labour Party, scientists and other stakeholders but was heavily criticised by Alternattiva Demokratika and other experts.

In an interview to business magazine The Executive, Labour leader Joseph Muscat had said Sargas were willing to invest €1 billion "out of pocket" to re-engineer the Delimara power station for a carbon-capture system, which would enable us to reduce energy bills.

Muscat has previously floated this proposal as a solution to Malta's dependence on oil in an interview to the Chamber of Commerce's Commercial Courier.

About GE'S LMS100
Defining a new era of flexible power generation, GE's revolutionary LMS100 provides a single, economical solution for the dispatch needs of nearly every market condition. With unparalleled efficiency, 10-minute start times, unmatched hot day performance, load following and cycling capabilities, the LMS100 is the ideal solution for power generation planners and developers in a variety of load cycles from peak power to base load. The LMS100 is a GE ecomagination product enabling grid stability and load following of wind and solar solutions.