Safe Storage of CO₂

Technical Report

1 January 2006

William A. Hobbs (Project Manager), Nikos Papanikolau, Bobby M.L. Lau

Citation: IEAGHG, "Safe Storage of CO₂", 2006-02, January 2006.

Publication Overview

The aim of this study is to review the regulatory processes and operational practises within the natural gas storage industry and assess their applicability to CO₂ storage. The objective of the study will be to develop a report that can act as a reference manual for IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG) members in their discussions with policy makers and environmental pressure groups to demonstrate that geological can be a safe and environmentally friendly mitigation option.

Publication Summary

The following aspects are discussed in this overview. Full details on all these topics are presented in the main report:

Review of natural gas storage activities
Regulatory issues
Site selection
Natural gas leakage incidents and incident frequency
Well design and abandonment issues.
eview of natural gas storage activities

Underground natural gas storage is undertaken in some 25 countries around the world all of which have regulations to cover these activities. In total, some 340 billion m3 of natural gas is stored annually in some 634 underground natural gas storage facilities. This volume of natural gas roughly equates to 910 Mt CO₂. With current annual CO₂ emissions from the power sector at 8200 Mt in 2002 this represents some 11% of annual emissions. Therefore, whilst there is a substantial amount of gas already stored, we will have to expand this storage capacity considerably to store sufficient CO₂ to reduce global warming. Nevertheless, the natural gas storage sector represents a significant knowledge base on subsurface gas storage that can be drawn upon in the development of CO₂ capture and storage.

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