Royal Dutch Shell PLC has started building a project to capture more than a million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year and store them underground near its oil sands operations in Canada.

Shell said Wednesday that the carbon capture and storage project, called Quest, will be the first of its kind in an oil sands operation. It should be completed by late 2015.

The project is designed to reduce direct emissions by up to 35 percent from Shell’s bitumen upgrading facility, which is part of its refinery near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.

Quest is being built for the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture between Shell, Chevron Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. Shell is the majority owner. As any as 700 employees will work on it over the next 30 months.

The project will transport captured emissions by pipeline to injection wells north of the facility. The emissions will be trapped and stored in underground geological formations.

Shell said it received a $745 million investment from the government of Alberta and $120 million from the Canadian government for the project.

In afternoon trading, shares of Shell fell 23 cents to $69.31. Chevron dropped 46 cents to $110.76 and Marathon was down 32 cents at $27.14 per share.