Are we really ready to implement large‐scale storage?

Abstract

As COP 21 approaches and with CCS perhaps gaining a new momentum, a question often posed is: are we really ready to implement large-scale storage? In other words do we have sufficient hands-on experience from current storage projects, together with theoretical understanding of subsurface processes, to confidently proceed with full industrial-scale storage rollout? So what is the state of play? Over the past twenty years or so three medium-scale storage projects (injecting around one million tons (Mt) of CO2 per year) and number of much smaller pilot injection tests have been developed across the world. The latter have helped to confirm and refine detailed understanding of subsurface fluid interactions and our ability to monitor these, but it is the operations at Sleipner, Snohvit and In Salah that provide the key pointers to what lies ahead. These projects have together injected over 20 Mt of CO2 and, in many respects, have performed according to expectation.