Report says oil exploration technology is key to storage of CO2

Carbon capture can learn from oil production.

The report draws on the shared expertise of the CCP participants, research from more than 50 academic institutions, and feedback from leading environmental non-governmental organisations.

“A Technical Basis for Carbon Dioxide Storage” provides guidance on how to assess and manage industrial-scale CO2 geological storage projects through appropriate site assessment, operational parameters and monitoring.

The report is aimed at technical and non-technical stakeholders, and provides key lessons and experience that could support the deployment of carbon capture and storage at industrial scale by enabling decision makers to draw upon more than 50 years of subsurface expertise from the oil and gas industry.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes carbon capture and storage could contribute between 15 and 55 per cent of the cumulative mitigation effort until 2100, while the International Energy Agency found that the cost of containing climate change would be 70 per cent higher without carbon capture and storage.

Scott Imbus, CCP Storage Team Leader, said, “The report – and the ongoing work of CCP - is the result of a remarkable collaboration between industry, government and academia in pursuit of the goal of finding real world, industry-scale solutions to the issue of carbon management. Understanding secure storage of CO2 underground is critical to advancing [carbon capture and storage] deployment, even as work continues to resolve other related issues such as carbon capture cost, regulatory frameworks and market incentives.”

The CCP is a technical authority on carbon capture and storage, formed in 2000 to promote the sharing of expertise to advance the development of next-generation capture technologies, transport and the development of key aspects of CO2 geological storage, including a certification framework for CO2 Geological Storage.

Imbus said, “With this report, the oil and gas industry is transferring decades of experience and nine years of technology development to the fledgling industry of carbon capture and storage. We hope this will provide the critical boost to turn the potential of carbon capture and storage into a practical reality.”

Membership of the CO2 Capture Project includes funding industry members BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Petrobras, Shell, StatoilHydro, Suncor and Associate Members: EPRI and Repsol YPF along with government members the European Commission, Norwegian Research Council, US Department of Energy and UK DTI.