Renew On Line (UK) 55

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 155 May-June2005

3. Carbon Storage

Responding to a Parliamentary Question about the potential for using oil-related infrastructure in the North Sea for carbon sequestration, Energy Minister Mike O’Brien said: ‘Our studies show that there are several operating fields where this can be technically feasible.  However the cost of CO2 captured and delivered to these sites and the capital costs involved are high, and none of these schemes have been shown to be commercially feasible under the current economic conditions.’ 

This was, he said,  based on a DTI study completed in May 2004.  But, he added, ‘We plan to publish a Carbon Abatement Technology Strategy to address the future requirements for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from large scale sources in the UK and storage in geological structures such as those in the North Sea. This strategy will reconsider the potential for using CO2  for  Enhanced Oil Recovery and eventual sequestration in the North Sea.’

Media leaks have suggested that the DTI’s conclusions from this  new review are quite radical- according to the Times (23/1/05), the DTI say that  collecting  CO2  from UK power plants and storing it in empty oil or gas wells, might add 15-20% to the price of electricity, but it would still be cheaper than nuclear or most renewables, including wind.  Subsequently the Guardian (3rd Feb) said that ‘the government is considering giving tax concessions to oil companies to pump carbon dioxide from coal-fired plants into nearly exhausted oil and gas wells in the North Sea’, so as to provide an incentive- although part of the cost would be balanced by the extra oil that would be recovered by this process. And in the March Budget, the Chancellor announced that the government was exploring options for supporting Carbon Capture and Storage ('CCS’), including ‘new economic incentives’.