U.K. to Start Drilling for CO2 Storage Sites

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The U.K. will start drilling its first test wells for storing captured CO2 under the seabed as early as May.

The country's grid operator, National Grid plc (NYSE:NGG) (London), has signed an Agreement for Lease with the Crown Estate to drill at a potential storage site in the North Sea, 70 kilometers (km) off Flamborough Head in Yorkshire, England. If successful the site could potentially store CO2 from carbon capture and storage projects (CCS) at multiple power stations and industrial sites in the Yorkshire and Humber region, which has the highest levels of CO2 emissions in the country.

"The appraisal drilling is the culmination of a three year work programme which has been largely funded by the EU and National Grid," Jim Ward, Head of CCS at National Grid told Carbon Capture Journal. "Our work to date has confirmed that the site is very large and capable of storing carbon dioxide from both power generation and industrial sources, including the Don Valley Power Project and the White Rose Project."

He added: "The site is close to the shore, and importantly, near to the U.K.'s largest clusters of carbon dioxide emitters, making it the ideal location to safely and permanently store carbon dioxide. The drilling will confirm the extent to which the site is capable of storing CO2 from regional power stations and industrial sites."

The National Grid storage project is linked to its development of transportation and storage infrastructure that could serve a number emitters in the Humber region, a scheme that is being co-funded by the European Energy Programme for Recovery Package (EEPR) award.

The Crown Estate controls the U.K. seabed and in 2012, it introduced a process for project developers to apply for Agreements for Lease over potential storage sites.

"The Crown Estate sees CCS as an important technology in managing climate change and security of supply issues as part of the various ways of continuing to deliver power and industrial processes to the UK with low or zero emissions," the Crown Estate said in a statement. "The conclusion of this Agreement for Lease with National Grid is an exciting step for the fledgling industry. Much work still has to be done to progress CCS and in particular transport and storage infrastructure."

National Grid will be working with the government-funded Energy Technologies Institute (ETI). The site they intend to drill at is a saline formation - a layer of porous sandstone rock over 1km below the seabed. The operation will use standard oil and gas drilling techniques to drill up to two wells in the seabed. The date gathered will determine the size of the store and whether or not captured CO2 can be stored safely and permanently at the site.

Andrew Green, the ETI Programme Manager for CCS, commented: "We welcome any innovation in the field of CCS, and progress on the appraisal of key CO2 storage sites is particularly important. As our modelling work has shown, CCS has the potential to play a major role in any future low carbon UK energy system. However, the industry requires innovation to make CCS economically viable. This multi million pound project represents a major step forward in the creation of a CCS industry in the U.K. for multiple power stations and industrial sites, to store their CO2 rather than release into the atmosphere".

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