A New Atlas Cracks Open Eastern Canada's CO₂ Vault

A first-of-its-kind geological atlas maps CO₂ storage potential across Quebec and Atlantic Canada, unlocking new ground for national CCUS ambitions

14 May 2026

Canada's carbon storage map just expanded well beyond Alberta. On April 28, 2026, the Geological Carbon Storage Atlas of Eastern Canada delivered the country's first comprehensive underground storage assessment for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, charting territory that until now existed as little more than educated guesswork.

Canadian Discovery led the research in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada, with co-funding from Deep Sky. The team surveyed two formation types, deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs, across the region's geological basins. What they found was promising but uneven. Some eastern sites can anchor large, hub-scale industrial storage operations. Others are better suited to smaller configurations linked to nearby emitters, a reflection of the complex and varied geology running beneath the region.

The timing matters. Quebec's manufacturing sectors and Atlantic Canada's resource industries generate significant emissions, yet eastern Canada has nothing resembling Alberta's established CO₂ pipeline and injection infrastructure. That gap has functioned as a hard ceiling on ambition for developers and regulators alike. This atlas starts to lower it.

However, the stakes stretch well beyond regional planning. Canada is targeting a fivefold expansion of CCUS capacity by 2030, and the IEA projects that up to 95% of captured CO₂ globally must go underground permanently to meet climate goals. Hitting that scale demands a national storage network, not one concentrated in the west. Eastern potential has been the structural blind spot, and this publication begins to address it.

Deep Sky's role as a funder ties eastern geology directly to live commercial activity. The company operates North America's leading cross-technology direct air capture hub in Innisfail, Alberta, and credible eastern storage data extends its project pipeline into new provinces. Meanwhile, the atlas builds in a framework for transparent engagement with Indigenous communities and municipalities before any site advances from assessment to development.

Canada's CCUS sector is shifting from planning to execution. Knowing what lies beneath the east isn't the final step. But without it, the next ones don't happen.