Insurance Coverage for CO2 Storage Projects

Overview

This report is a focused review of recent developments regarding insurance coverage for carbon dioxide (CO2) geological storage projects. It seeks to address the following: what companies are offering or planning to offer insurance to CO2 storage projects, what is the scope and duration of the coverage offered, and does coverage extend to the transportation of CO2 to the project site? This work and report was prepared by Franz Hiebert.

Summary

This brief report identified certain insurance companies that are recently engaged in some way with carbon storage projects. Further research is needed in order to update and expand this list and to encourage the technical, project development, and financial communities to understand the potential and role of insurance in providing financial securities and regulatory compliance for the growing carbon storage and climate transition markets.

This report also introduced certain common industry terms and some of the types of insurance products and policies available, but further efforts to report on specifics of actual policy language and to provide policy examples for review and discussion will be beneficial, especially for project developers, risk assessors, and technical CO2 storage and monitoring experts.

Since requirements for permitting and financial securities are defined on a national or sub- national basis, insurance coverage will vary by regulatory jurisdiction. Additional research focused on jurisdictionally-specific policies (i.e., in Canada, UK, Australia, USA, etc., and in jurisdictions with developing interest in carbon storage) and review of locally relevant project histories would be beneficial to the project development community, especially as “loss history” data can be collected and assessed.