A major joint industry project
DNV has previously published industry guidelines across the full CCS value chain of capture, transport and storage. These guidelines have been implemented by a number of companies for their current and planned CO2 operations, as well as being adopted by authorities as a component in their own regulations.
The CO2WELLS guideline represents the latest addition to this series. Within the field of CO2 geological storage, it supplements DNV’s CO2QUALSTORE guideline which was published in 2010 following a similar joint industry initiative.
Together, these two guidelines provide a generic capital value process for CCS projects that is designed to qualify geological storage sites through iterative cycles of risk and uncertainty reducing measures. The integrity of existing wells at CO2 storage sites has been highlighted as a potential concern, and the new CO2WELLS guideline addresses this issue head on.
The guideline describes a risk management framework for existing wells at potential CO2 storage sites, both onshore and offshore. It is aimed at project developers and authorities and includes guidance on:
- Risk assessment of active and abandoned wells during the initial screening of candidate storage sites;
- The qualification of these wells for continued or modified use in a CCS project.
The guideline is consistent with the ISO31000 international standard for risk management and with current and emerging regulations for CO2 geological storage in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Participants of the CO2WELLS joint industry project:
- DNV
- E.On Engineering
- GASSCO
- GASSNOVA
- Global CCS Institute
- Health & Safety Executive UK
- National Grid
- Petrobras
- RWE
- Shell Canada
- Vattenfall.
This illustration shows an abandoned well at a depleted gas field that may be used for CO2 storage. The gas-tight reservoir is more than 1000 metres under the ground and there are a series of thick, regional seals above the formation. A new injection well will be drilled if the project gets developed, but permission will not be granted until it can be shown that CO2 will not leak up the abandoned well that is already there. The illustration shows examples of the possible leakage pathways that could exist in such a well. The CO2WELLS guideline describes a robust process for addressing all of these risks and providing the evidence that each well is safe and will remain so.
Unified guidelines to speed up CCS implementation
DNV believes that CCS is a strategically important technology for maintaining sustainable growth whilst reducing CO2 emissions. By permanently storing CO2 produced by industrial processes in deep geological formations, it has been highlighted as one of the key technologies that can facilitate a transition to a more carbon neutral world.
For CCS to play a significant role in combating climate change, however, a significant number of commercial scale projects must be initiated around the world within the coming years. To boost the deployment of CCS in a safe and sustainable way, there is a need for unified, recognized and publicly available guidelines that provide the standards that can help speed up innovation.
Mike Carpenter, project manager at DNV, said, “DNV’s core philosophy is that technology development and knowledge sharing foster innovation and improvements in safety. So when industry is facing challenges like CCS, the best way of solving them is for the key players to join forces through joint industry projects. In this way we, as an industry, can develop global best practices and standards.”
Source: DNV