Introduction

The world of offshore CCS gathered together 19-21 April, 2016 at the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA for a workshop on offshore geological CO2 storage. The workshop was organized by the Gulf Coast Carbon Center at BEG, IEAGHG, and the South African National Energy Development Institute, and was supported by the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). Over 50 people attended from 13 countries, including from seven developing countries.

The aims of the workshop were to undertake a global needs assessment for offshore geological CO2 storage, to initiate a discussion about the various aspects of offshore transport and storage, and to build an international community of parties interested in offshore storage.

Key Messages

Overall, it was clear that each country is at a different stage on the path to offshore CCS, but with common interests. The enthusiasm from attendees suggested they considered the workshop a success. There was common recognition that there is a nexus of interests and needs converging in progressing CCS offshore, and that momentum was being created towards international collaboration, not just in knowledge-sharing, but towards pilot and demonstration projects.

The list of recommendations included:

• International collaboration and funding mechanism for a demonstration project.
   
• Development of a test programme and pilot project for infrastructure developments.
   
• Workshops and training on a range of topics including: storage resource assessment, funding sources for early stages of CCS resource assessment in developing countries, platform infrastructure and transport infrastructure issues and developments, and comparing specific aspects across projects such as environmental monitoring.
   
• Assistance with access to existing key information sources, and a common language on storage.
   
• Creation of an ‘Offshore Network’ or other means of continuing the momentum from this workshop.