27 July 2015

Costain is playing a key role in an important new Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project.

Working alongside Pale Blue Dot Energy and Axis Well Technology, Costain is taking part in a £2.5 million, 12-month project to assess five offshore sites as potential stores for CO2, produced by major power stations and industrial sites around the UK.

The project has been commissioned by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It aims to develop storage options that will help create 1500 million tonnes of CO2 storage in the UK, injecting 50 million tonnes a year, by 2030.

As Angus Reid, Engineering Manager, Costain Upstream, explained, Costain’s role is to evaluate the offshore infrastructure requirements for the selected storage sites. “Once the CO2 has been captured at the power plant or industrial site, it then has to be transported to the storage site. That’s where Costain comes in: we are looking at everything involved in the transportation of the CO2, including pipelines, platforms and subsea infrastructure.”

The project began in May, with work so far concentrating on collecting data and developing the screening methodology. A potential 650 sites will be reduced to just 20 by the end of July, with the five most promising due to be selected by August.

“We don’t just select the five biggest, we look at a range of factors to develop a portfolio that includes factors such as location, rock formation and depth,” said Angus. “We need a geographical spread to ensure the storage sites are not too far from the largest emitters, the stores must be deep enough to ensure the CO2 remains a liquid, and a variety of rock formations and store types such as depleted reservoirs and aquifers selected. We’re looking at sites whose capacity varies from upwards of 100 million tonnes to around 1000 million tonnes.”

The project also aims to show that the UK has significant CO2 storage capacity and to encourage future CCS projects. It will make a significant and tangible difference to future CO2 storage developers and can be seen by CCS project developers as providing clear evidence of the availability, cost and timing of CO2 storage.

Commented Frazer Mackay, Costain Sector Director (Oil and Gas): “We are delighted to be involved in this project as it allows us to demonstrate Costain’s expertise and field development capabilities, and make a material difference to the UK’s CCS landscape.”

 

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