Navigator Approved to Proceed With Development and Construction of Heartland Greenway System in Midwest

October 14, 2021

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(Navigator Ventures/PR Newswire) Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC (“Navigator”) announced today that as a result of commitments received during its binding open season, it has obtained the necessary board approvals to proceed with its proposed carbon capture pipeline system, the Heartland Greenway. Based upon the substantial market reception for the project, Navigator is evaluating multiple opportunities to expand the Heartland Greenway’s available capacity and add service offerings for the benefit of its current and future customers. Having successfully reached the initial approval phase, Navigator has commenced the process to obtain all the necessary permits to construct the Heartland Greenway and start initial system commissioning during late 2024 and into early 2025.

“The Heartland Greenway is the first substantial, fully integrated CO2 handling system to reach a final investment decision, and we could not be more excited for the path ahead for all stakeholders,” said Navigator CEO Matt Vining. “It is a great privilege and responsibility to help pave the way for large scale infrastructure projects designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a material way. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve our customers and investors who have entrusted us with the task ahead.”

In addition to the initial Heartland Greenway build out, Navigator is actively creating incremental capability to allow its customers to maximize the value of their commercial participation. Navigator will be creating an affiliated marketing company to assist customers with tracking emissions and monetizing their environmental attributes. This will enable Navigator customers to benefit from the centralized scale and analytics of the Heartland Greenway. Navigator is also in discussions with multiple parties that consume CO2 who would desire delivery interconnection points to provide a ratable, consistent source for CO2 acquisition.

“In addition to providing best-in-class service for our customers, designing and constructing a multi-dimensional system that opens up new markets is key for our customers’ ability to maximize value,” said Vining. “This is the first inning of a long game, and we are 100% aligned with our customers’ focus on executing a highly scalable platform that can respond to increasing customer demand and industry change.”

The Heartland Greenway’s first phase is projected to commence initial service in early 2025 and span approximately 1,300 miles across five Midwest states to nearly 20 receipt points. In parallel, multiple permanent sequestration locations are being actively developed in south-central Illinois, where the project will utilize specific intervals of the well understood Mt. Simon formation for the safe, permanent sequestration of its CO2. This combined scope will enable Heartland Greenway to transport and sequester up to 15 million metric tons per year once fully expanded.

Navigator’s current and future customers for the system include many rural value-added ag processors from the ethanol and fertilizer industries. The Navigator management team looks forward to continuing its multi-year commercial partnership with Valero Energy Corporation as the anchor customer of the system.

Navigator previously announced on July 15 it had entered into contracts with two industry-leading companies to execute the sequestration site development on behalf of the Heartland Greenway. Work being performed by affiliates of Tenaska, Inc. and Advanced Resources International (“ARI”) is well underway and positions the Heartland Greenway to submit its EPA Class VI permit applications on an accelerated basis in the near future.

Navigator values the rural industries and landscapes that the Heartland Greenway will influence, and looks forward to building strong, long-standing partnerships with landowners and local regulators. The company will hold a series of public meetings across the project’s footprint in late 2021 and early 2022. Virtual participation will be offered to provide maximum input from stakeholders and interested parties.

About Heartland Greenway
Heartland Greenway is Navigator CO2 Ventures proposed carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) system that will provide biofuel producers and other industrial customers in five Midwest states with a long-term and cost-effective means to reduce their carbon footprint. The Heartland Greenway will reach industrial customers in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Initial phase commissioning is expected to begin during late 2024 and into early 2025.

As part of the multi-faceted project, Navigator will assist customers requesting such services in constructing and financing their carbon dioxide (CO2) capture equipment; safely transporting the captured CO2 over a newly built 1,300-mile pipeline network; and permanently sequestering the carbon in secure, underground sequestration sites. Navigator’s project is one of the first large-scale, commercially viable CCS projects to be developed in the United States.

At its full expanded capacity, the Heartland Greenway will have the ability to capture and store 15 million metric tons of CO2 annually, that’s equivalent to the emissions from approximately 3.2 million cars driven annually, carbon sequestered by 18.3 million acres of US forests for one year, or eliminating the carbon footprint of the Des Moines metro area 3 times over. For more information about the Heartland Greenway, feel free to visit the project’s website at www.heartlandgreenway.com.

About Navigator CO2 Ventures
Navigator CO2 Ventures is a company developed and managed by the Navigator Energy Services (Navigator) management team. The company specializes in carbon capture and storage (CCS), and the management team has safely constructed and operated over 1,000 miles of midstream infrastructure since being founded in 2012. Navigator CO2 .Ventures will be hiring skilled individuals to fill new offices across the Heartland Greenway footprint in the Midwest United States, and we are committed to building and operating our projects to meet and exceed safety requirements while minimizing the collective impact on the environment, landowners, and the public during construction and ongoing operations. For more information about Navigator CO2, visit our website at: www.navigatorco2.com. READ MORE

Carbon Pipeline Meetings Rescheduled for Floyd, Butler, Franklin Counties (KCHA News)

Iowans beware of ethanol ‘greenwashing’ (The Gazette)

Illinois could host proposed pipeline to offset biorefinery carbon emissions (Farm Week Now)

Navigator signs letters of intent with 4 national labor unions (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Illinois activists protest multi-state carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline (Chron)

Excerpt from Chron: Some Illinois residents are pushing back on a yet-to-be-built carbon dioxide pipeline that would run through the state.

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Illinois activists are opposing the pipeline on the grounds of safety, environmental effects and land usage.

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Several residents cited the February 2020 rupture of a carbon dioxide pipeline in Satartia, Mississippi, as an example of what they are worried about happening if the Heartland Greenway ever failed. A pipeline operated by Denbury Resources began leaking carbon dioxide into the small town of Satartia, hospitalizing dozens and forcing hundreds to evacuate.

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Morgan County organic farmer Mary Agnes cited groups including the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines in saying the spots in Christian County where Navigator plans to drill are on top of aquifers — rocks and sediment that hold groundwater.

“… Me, as a farmer, I don’t want that toxic stuff anywhere close to my organic farm,” she said. “I’ve worked too hard and put too (many) dollars in.”

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Burns-Thompson said the company would provide first responders near the pipeline with training on how to deal with a leak.

There would be “a significant amount of safety oversight” from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and multiple preventive measures — including pipe composition and carbon dioxide purity — would be in place to prevent a disaster like the one in Satartia, she said.

Blumenshine believes carbon sequestration is the wrong way to fight climate change, saying “it will just enable industries that rely on natural gas or coal fire power to continue with the excuse or Band-Aid approach that they’re going to capture carbon and sequester it.”

While carbon capture eventually would be necessary, she said, companies must take bold action now to save the climate.

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Pamela Richart, secretary for the Eco-Justice Collaborative, said the Heartland Greenway would be disruptive to farming land in the state. She said construction of the pipeline would alter the makeup of Illinois’ topsoil, compact it and cut off drainage tiling that runs underneath it.

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Burns-Thompson said much of the CO2 being captured was being produced by plant fermentation, rather than burning fossil fuels. She also said liquid fuels still will be around for “years to come,” but carbon sequestration meant that plants still could produce it while also reducing their carbon footprint.

“… A plant that adopts carbon capture technology has the potential to reduce that carbon intensity score by upwards of 50%,” she said.

When it comes to farmland, restoring the land to how it was prior to construction, as well as compensating for damages incurred during construction, are both “top priority” for Navigator, Burns-Thompson said.

As for land usage, Richart said local landowners are uninterested in having their land used for the pipeline. She said many farmers and rural residents “have already been forced by eminent domain to allow oil and gas on their properties in the past.”

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Burns-Thompson said the project still is in a very early phase and Navigator hasn't yet extended any offers to landowners. She said the company would work with them to place the pipeline where it works for the landowner, as well as listening to their concerns voiced in outreach meetings.

However, if the company ran into a situation where the use of eminent domain was deemed necessary, Burns-Thompson said that is an option available to Navigator. She said the company wants to avoid using it, saying it made life harder for all involved.

“It is in both our best interest and the landowner’s best interest to be able to navigate as much of this as possible in a voluntary fashion,” Burns-Thompson said. READ MORE