A group led by Enbridge Inc. (ENB) said Wednesday it plans a test project to inject carbon-dioxide gas into salt-water basins deep underground in Alberta.

The 38-member Alberta Saline Aquifer Project, or ASAP, said it is ready to start the second of three phases, a C$30 million-C$50 million pilot in the Wabamun area west of Edmonton.

The pilot is expected to be up and running between 2012 and 2015, pending regulatory approval, with the group testing the technologies to inject and store CO2 gas in deep saline aquifers ahead of a commercial-scale development.

Both the federal government and Alberta's provincial government have centered their climate-change policies on carbon capture and storage, betting on the as-yet unproved technology to deliver a big chunk of its targeted emissions cuts - a stance strongly criticized by environmental organizations such as Greenpeace.

The energy industry is also largely optimistic about the technology's potential for "greening" traditionally emissions-intensive operations. Carbon capture is seen as especially promising for coal-fired power generation - Alberta's biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions - and some elements of oil-sands development.

ASAP recently won financial backing from the Canadian government for the pilot project, and has also applied to the Alberta government for a slice of a C$2 billion fund set aside to promote the technology.

If the pilot is successful, the group would expand it to a large-scale commercial project starting between 2013 and 2015. The C$100 million-C$200 million development would be entirely funded by the project operators.

Members of the group include BP PLC (BP), EnCana Corp. (ECA), Petro-Canada (PCZ) and StatoilHydro ASA (STO).

-By Hyun Young Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 613-237-0669; hyunyoung.lee@dowjones.com