ANP Director Pietro Mendes (left) and SFLCT Chairman Fernando C. Hernandez at CERAWeek 2026 in Houston, Texas
“In our mission to advance a low-carbon world, we stand with ‘Ordem e Progresso,’ always working alongside, and never above, our collaborators.”— Fernando C. Hernandez, SFLCT Chairman of the Board
The Society for Low Carbon Technologies (SFLCT), together with Brazil’s regulator, the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), jointly organized an international Digital Seminar focused on supporting Brazil’s sovereign CCS pathway. Attracting over 60 participants, the event expanded upon earlier SFLCT–ANP in-person meetings in the U.S. and Brazil, including recent talks between ANP Director Pietro Mendes and SFLCT Chairman Fernando C. Hernandez in Houston, Texas.
During the seminar, SFLCT and its Advisory Board shared practical international commercial experience, building on its Chairman’s involvement with Bill 1425/2022 (since 2022), which has now become Brazil’s CCS law. Drawing on sequestration expertise from ethanol, coal power, and oil sands without Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), SFLCT connected commercial deployment, governance, and operational procedures to enable knowledge exchange.
Significantly, ANP is broadening its CCS regulatory role as Brazil moves forward with South America’s first commercial CCS project via the ethanol-to-CCS route. This project receives technical direction from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Class VI Measurement Monitoring and Verification (MMV) requirements for a CO2 injection well (non-EOR).
This achievement directly corresponds with SFLCT’s institutional expertise from the U.S. Blue Flint Project, which has permanently stored roughly 200,000 tonnes of ethanol-related CO₂ each year through an EPA Class VI well since 2023. For this reason, the seminar’s roundtable featured SFLCT Advisory Board member Zach Liu—Director of Subsurface CCUS at Harvestone Low Carbon Partners and a key figure in Blue Flint’s implementation—who provided operational lessons applicable to Brazil’s inaugural ethanol-to-CCS project.
Opening the seminar, SFLCT’s Chairman presented a “Global CCS Overview” and unveiled the 2026 Edition of SFLCT’s National Readiness Instrument for CCS (NRIC). Serving as a benchmarking tool to scientifically assess and enhance national preparedness for commercial CCS deployment—spanning South America to South Asia—the NRIC is modeled after NASA’s technology readiness level framework and applies space-grade reasoning to evaluate global CCS readiness through MMV-focused performance.
First introduced in 2025 during the United Nations’ COP30, the NRIC was presented to Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy’s CCS Technical Executive Subcommittee while the CCS Draft Decree was being developed. This Subcommittee included key participants such as SFLCT, ANP, and the developer of Brazil’s first CCS project. The Draft Decree is now under final executive review to fully activate Brazil’s CCS law.
Supporting the NRIC’s benchmarking approach is the direct operational experience institutionally represented through SFLCT. Notably, the framework incorporates MMV data from the Blue Flint Project and Shell Canada’s Quest CCS Project—the Western Hemisphere’s first commercial-scale CCS facility, which has permanently stored millions of tonnes of CO2 since 2015.
Drawing on his work at Quest, SFLCT Advisory Board member Dr. Matt Flannery created Quest’s foundational fluid characterization and monitoring program. Speaking as Director of Geoscience and Engineering at Stratum Reservoir, he delivered “From the Western Hemisphere’s First CCS Project in Canada to U.S. Class VI Implementation: Technical Lessons Learned and Optimization Strategies,” showcasing how subsurface data and MMV practices apply to Brazil’s CCS industry.
Furthermore, SFLCT Advisory Board member Stephen Pattee, P.G., Senior Vice President at Lonquist & Co., gave a talk titled “Insights from Supporting 120+ U.S. Class VI Projects and Canada’s First Coal-Fired Power CCS Project in a Deep Saline Formation.” His presentation also referenced Lonquist & Co.’s role in Canada’s Aquistore Project (included in the NRIC), reflecting his hands-on knowledge of how Class VI projects progress from concept to injection.
The organization’s collective global experience shows that SFLCT and the NRIC are grounded in real-world CCS deployment. Hernandez concluded, “In our mission to advance a low-carbon world, we stand with ‘Ordem e Progresso,’ always working alongside, and never above, our collaborators.”
*Publishing note: The views expressed are those of the SFLCT, a federally recognized U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of any organizations or individuals referenced herein. This publication is shared for educational, community-impact, and non-commercial purposes. No endorsement is implied. This publication aligns with SFLCT’s federally exempt status.*
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