Development and Testing of Unified Approach to Qualifying CO2 Storage Sites
Authors: Aarnes J. E. , Carpenter M. E. , Flach T. A. , Foto S. Solomon , Klöppner C. , Røsnes O. , Vivalda C. 
Published: December 2009

A unified approach to selection and qualification of sites for geological storage of CO2 is being developed by key industry players in the CO2QUALSTORE Joint Industry Project. The partners represent companies with diverse roles within CCS; oil and gas companies (BP, BG Group, Petrobras, Shell and StatoilHydro); energy companies (DONG Energy, RWE Dea and Vattenfall); technical consultancy and service providers (Schlumberger and Arup); the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme; and two Norwegian public enterprises (Gassnova and Gassco). The project is coordinated by DNV, a major provider of independent verification and risk management consultancy services.

CO2QUALSTORE aims to produce a guideline that shall help project developers pass internal milestones during the site selection stage of the project life cycle and simultaneously demonstrate compliance with regulations and stakeholder expectations. A primary objective of the qualification workflow is to assist operators, authorities, verifiers and other stakeholders in assuring that storage sites are qualified following a transparent, consistent and cost-effective process. The guideline should lay the groundwork for a risk-based approach where monitoring programs and contingency measures are derived from preceding risk assessments. Furthermore, the guideline aims to facilitate the following processes; identifying, characterizing and selecting the sites that are well suited for CO2 geological storage among a list of candidates;defining qualification criteria and providing the evidence that the site and project will function reliably according to these qualification criteria;verifying that the selected site and its planned management procedures comply with given standards and regulations, and that the available data and management procedures as well as the contingency (remediation) plans provide sufficient confidence that the site will provide long-term storage of CO2.

In this paper we present results and conclusions from five satellite projects that test and evaluate critical components of the main steps of the proposed qualification framework. The main objectives of these projects are described below. Site selection offshore Norway: Document the ongoing site selection process for storage of CO2 from two gas-fired power plants, and assess if the documentation provided at the key milestones corresponds with the guideline framework.Site characterisation criteria: Develop site characterisation criteria for geological storage of CO2 in saline aquifers or hydrocarbon reservoirs, and evaluate how to convert the criteria into recommendations.Site verification: Show how monitoring and verification has been carried out on projects in the injection phase, and evaluate how the verification process could be improved and completed.Site selection onshore Germany: Apply the qualification framework to the process of site selection for two planned onshore storage projects in Germany, and identify documentation necessary for regulatory approval processes in compliance with the German mining law, the EC CCS directive, and the upcoming German CCS law (KSPG).Risk assessment and communication with stakeholders: Perform a critical review of risk assessment work conducted for the In Salah project in Algeria and use lessons learned from the In Salah project as a basis for demonstrating effective communication of risk assessment for a CO2 storage site between an operator and stakeholders.