Elk Hills Is Weeks Away From Making CCS History

California is on the verge of a historic first. California Resources Corporation (CRC) announced on March 2, 2026, that its carbon management subsidiary, Carbon TerraVault (CTV), has completed construction of carbon capture equipment at the Elk Hills Cryogenic Gas Plant in Kern County. First CO₂ injection into the underground 26R storage reservoir is now targeted for spring 2026, pending final EPA approval.

This is not a groundbreaking ceremony or a feasibility study. Construction is done, commissioning is underway, and injection is imminent, making Carbon TerraVault I the closest any project has come to becoming California's first fully operational carbon storage hub.

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From Blueprint to Reality

The journey from concept to execution has been years in the making. CRC and its joint venture partner Brookfield Asset Management broke ground at Elk Hills on October 16, 2025. The March 2, 2026 update confirms construction completed on schedule, with commissioning actively progressing.

The first phase captures up to 100,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year from the Elk Hills Cryogenic Gas Plant and stores it in the nearby 26R reservoir. That reservoir alone holds an estimated 38 million metric tons of total storage capacity, with an expected injection rate of up to 1.46 MMTPA as third-party customers come online. The full CTV I site, which also includes the A1-A2 reservoir, carries a combined total capacity of up to 46 million metric tons.

Beyond the injection milestone itself, CTV also secured MOUs totaling 6.8 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA) with major industrial and power-sector partners. Those agreements signal growing demand from California industries seeking third-party carbon storage solutions.

Why Elk Hills Makes Sense

Location is everything in carbon storage, and Elk Hills delivers. The Kern County site sits on top of well-mapped depleted oil and gas reservoirs ideal for CO₂ injection. CRC already owns the existing wells, pipelines, and monitoring infrastructure, which means far lower development costs compared to greenfield storage projects.

CTV I holds the distinction of being the first facility in California to receive final EPA Class VI injection permits for the use of depleted oil and gas reservoirs for CO₂ sequestration, a regulatory precedent for the state. CRC currently has seven additional Class VI permit applications under EPA review, covering an estimated 287 million metric tons of further storage capacity.

California passed SB 614 in 2025, authorizing CO₂ transport by pipeline statewide, which positions CTV I as a future anchor point for a broader regional carbon transport network. The site was designed from the start to accept third-party CO₂ from industrial emitters, not just CRC's own operations.

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A Commercial Model Built to Scale

Carbon TerraVault is not just a single project. It is being built as a carbon management platform with multiple sites, permits, and partners already in development. MOUs with power producers, cement manufacturers, and industrial emitters reflect a service-based business model where CTV earns revenue for every ton stored.

The economics are supported by the federal 45Q tax credit at up to $85 per ton, plus California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Cap-and-Invest incentives. Those stacked revenue streams give CTV I multiple pathways to generate returns without relying solely on voluntary markets.

The platform also expands into direct air capture infrastructure through the California DAC Hub consortium, which received $11.8 million in DOE funding, and has signed an MOU with Net Power to develop low-carbon baseload power solutions tied to CTV's storage vaults.

What This Means for West Coast CCS

California has the most demanding permitting environment in the country. Clearing it sets a powerful precedent. If CTV I reaches first injection this spring, it becomes proof that industrial-scale CCS can be commercially viable without relying on federal grants, a signal that investors and developers across the country have been watching for.

The timing also matters. Federal CCS funding has faced growing uncertainty since mid-2025, but CTV I is financed through a private joint venture and supported by durable state-level policies. The California model, built on existing geology, transferable 45Q credits, and stacked state incentives, offers a replicable blueprint for projects elsewhere.

As more states push for CCS infrastructure and industrial emitters face mounting pressure to reduce Scope 1 emissions, projects like Carbon TerraVault I are the ones they will point to as the model that worked.

California Sets the Pace

The Carbon TerraVault story is moving fast now. Construction is done. Commissioning is live. Partners are signed. The next marker is first injection, and when it happens, it will be the first time CO₂ has ever been permanently stored underground in California's history.

For the decarbonization industry, that is not just a California milestone. It is a signal that the West Coast is open for business, and that the long road from permits to injection can, in fact, be traveled.