For CCS to achieve the required contribution to the Paris Agreement’s aim to keep the global temperature increase from anthropogenic CO2 emissions to 2°C or below, the annual net volume of CO2 storage needs to increase dramatically. Internationally, this requires a significant increase in CCS infrastructure development.
A recent regional storage assessment, undertaken for Australia, Brazil, China, the Indian subcontinent, North America, Norway and the UK found that of the 12,000 gigatonne total storage resource available, only around 750 megatonne has had enough work done to make it ‘investment ready’. Strong action is required to bring storage capacity up to the target of 2,400 megatonne by 2035.
As well as increasing infrastructure development, better utilisation of ‘investment ready’ and ‘discovered’ storage resources is needed. This will improve the path towards the 2035 target and significantly improve the economics of CCS projects.
CO2CRC and the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, have led a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum task force to investigate ways to improve pore space utilisation. This includes exploring existing technologies developed in the hydrocarbon industry, maturing pressure management technology, and innovative emerging technologies, as well as general principles for storage operations.
Read the task force’s full report here.
Work cited
Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), 2019. Improved Pore Space Utilisation: Current Status of Techniques. Technical Group Task Force on Improved Pore Space Utilisation.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2015. Report on the Conference of Parties on its twenty-first session, held in Paris from the 30 November to 11 of December 2015. Addendum. Part two: Action taken by the Conference of the Parties at its twenty-first session.
Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, 2017. Preliminary Multinational CO2 Storage Resource Assessment. Oil and Gas Climate Initiative.