The United Kingdom’s Energy Technologies Institute, following a 12-month study, has confirmed the viability of five potential carbon storage sites in the North Sea. “All five sites have been studied in detail. As a result, there is confidence regarding the ability to inject CO2 at commercially significant rates, the capacity to store CO2 in commercially significant volumes and the capability to retain the injected CO2 within the defined storage reservoir on a permanent basis,” according to the ETI report, released Thursday.
The new sites, called Bunter Closure 36, Hamilton, Forties 5 Site 1, Captain Site X, and Viking A, along with three other well-studied North Sea sites — Hewett, Goldeneye, and Endurance — represent significant storage capacity, according to the report. “This portfolio presents a mature and well qualified UK storage proposition in excess of 1.5GT which could be fully operational as early as 2030,” the report says
The new sites are “well-placed in relation to the UK’s major emission sources,” according to the report, which further notes that “three of the five new sites considered would not require any further appraisal drilling.”
“The results from this project have confirmed the understanding that there are no major technical hurdles to moving industrial scale CO2 storage forward in the UK. Indeed the UK could form the basis of a storage resource that could service the needs of many parts of Europe in addition to its own needs,” Andrew Green, ETI’s CCS program manager, said in a press release.
While the storage potential of the five new sites coupled with the previously studied three is substantial, it represents only 2 percent of the U.K.’s full storage capacity, the report says.
