10M Tonnes of CO2 Now Sequestered at Sleipner
29 April 2008
StatoilHydro has stored 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide underground at Sleipner in the North Sea. The company removes 2,800 tonnes of CO2 from natural gas produced on the Sleipner West field in the North Sea every day and injects and stores it in the Utsira formation.
This sandstone formation extends over a large area in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The facility has been online since the autumn of 1996, recording a very high regularity.
Research and monitoring of the carbon injection into the Utsira formation show that the greenhouse gas is retained in the formation.
The Sleipner organization is exploring the possibilities of offering other petroleum discoveries in the area the opportunity to process gas, remove CO2 from the gas and store it in the Utsira formation. The possibility of receiving carbon dioxide from land for injection into the Utsira formation is also being considered.A decision by the EU Parliament as to whether, and on what conditions, carbon storage may be permitted is scheduled for this year.
An item for all those that say this is not possible on an industrial scale.
Posted by: Neil | 29 April 2008 at 11:08 AM
Sure it's possible, but what does it cost, and how do you know the CO2 will stay where it belongs forever?
Posted by: George | 29 April 2008 at 09:04 PM
One million tonnes per year. Very nice. Now all we need to do is scale this up by a factor of roughly four thousand, so that we're capturing and storing about four billion tonnes per year (approximately eight thousand cubic kilometers of gas at STP, or one hundred cubic kilometers of liquid CO2 per year) and we'll be home free.
Posted by: richard schumacher | 30 April 2008 at 05:52 AM
How many mosquito nets would this money buy for the children in African nations suffering malaria? Are these expenditures truly any different from errant wars? Boon doggle subsidies? Corrupt politicians?
If these efforts represent a "parallel path" of economic growth and environmental puritanism - enlighten us, please.
Posted by: sulleny | 30 April 2008 at 10:46 AM