The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) meetings in Abu Dhabi, UAE, were held from 4-6 December and concluded with the 7th CSLF Ministerial Meeting. The CSLF is a government-to-government agreement on developing CCS, it started in 2003 and now has 25 member countries and the European Commission, and consists of a Technical Group, a Policy Group, and Ministerial meetings.

The Ministers and other heads-of-delegation agreed a Ministerial Communique "Advancing the Business Case for CCUS". This agreed key actions to progress CCS as follows:

  • Ensure CCUS is supported as part of a suite of clean energy technologies in clean energy policies
  • Leverage the success of operational projects while emphasizing the urgency of developing new projects, noting the opportunities on industrial processes
  • Development of regional strategies to strengthen the business case, including for governments to support infrastructure onshore and offshore.
  • To explore new utilisation concepts beyond CO2-EOR.
  • Collaborative R&D on next generation CCUS technologies for power and industry, including under Mission Innovation.
  • Expand stakeholder engagement and strengthen links with other global clean energy efforts, including Mission Innovation, Clean Energy Ministerial, IEA, and the IEAGHG.
  • Increase global shared learnings and disseminating best practices from CCUS projects and strengthen coordination on R&D globally, including for offshore.
  • Continue to engage the public on CCUS.

As well as updates on CCUS developments for the region and globally, the Ministerial Meeting included a session on CCUS infrastructure, where John Gale presented IEAGHG work on the business models for CCUS hubs and clusters.

The CSLF Policy Group endorsed one new project as recommended by the Technical Group: the CO2CRC Otway Stage 3. Japan, on behalf of the Regulatory Task Force, presented the report and conclusions on "Practical Regulations and Permitting" based upon learnings from seven project case-studies (Japan led this Task Force and IEAGHG was one of the supporting co-authors).

The CSLF Technical Group presented an updated "2017 Technology Roadmap". This report provides a good review of technology progress and needs (it will be summarised by IEAGHG in an Information Paper). Norway, on behalf of the Offshore CO2-EOR Task Force, presented its report and conclusions on the potential for CO2-EOR offshore and how to progress it (IEAGHG will produce an Information Paper on it also). IEAGHG were co-authors to both these reports. Updates were given from other Task Forces: BioCCS; Improved Pore-space Utilisation; and Industrial CCS. The CSLF Technical Group agreed to start a new Task Force on hydrogen and CCS, and is considering a new task force on mineralisation. IEAGHG's work will be relevant to both of these.

The International CCS Knowledge Centre presented a review of their recent Global CCS Symposium, which had focused on the good news and positive developments and learnings from operational projects. In contrast, there was an interesting presentation by the Netherlands on lessons from the ROAD project not proceeding.

IEAGHG presented an update on its activities and how its work has been used recently to inform UNFCCC at COP-23, the London Convention, and IPCC. IEAGHG also presented the outcomes of the 2nd Workshop on Offshore CO2 Storage (see IEAGHG report 2017-TR12 and earlier blog in July). This included the background of this work and how the results have been used to inform the London Convention and UNFCCC. The offshore idea was first presented to CSLF in 2013 by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. The CSLF created an Offshore Task Force led by the US DOE, which reported at the CSLF Ministerial in 2015. This report and the two workshops on offshore subsequently hosted by the University of Texas, have stimulated new sharings between countries and new countries to be interested in CCS and for these to also use UNFCCC Technology Mechanism funds for the first time. The US DOE has now very recently announced two new projects to develop offshore CCS in the Gulf of Mexico. So overall a success story for CSLF Technical Group work being used and creating positive impacts. This good news story was included by the chair of the Technical Group in her message to the CSLF Policy Group and to the CSLF Ministerial.

IEAGHG participates directly in the CSLF through an Agreement with the CSLF Technical Group, and frequently contributes in its Task Forces.

This was a very well attended CSLF Ministerial, chaired by the new US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, with Ministers from the hosts UAE and Saudi Arabia, plus several Deputy-Ministers and senior civil servants. Compliments to the hosts, the Ministry of Energy of the United Arab Emirates for a very impressive set of CSLF meetings. Details of the Communique, the final CSLF reports, and other meeting documents can be found at https://www.cslforum.org/cslf/Events/7thMinisterialAbuDhabi