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First CO2 injected into Project Greensand
15/3/2023
Denmark has officially inaugurated what is claimed to be the world’s first cross-border carbon storage site, injecting CO2 from Belgium into a depleted oil field in the Danish North Sea.
Project Greensand, developed by a consortium of 23 organisations led by Ineos and its partner Wintershall Dea, aims to safely capture and permanently store up to 8mn t/y of CO2, 40% of Denmark’s total emission reduction target.
The project was officially inaugurated by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark last week, with CO2 captured at an Ineos Oxide site in Belgium being transported cross-border to be safely and permanently stored at a depth of 1,800 metres below the seabed in the Ineos-operated Nini field in the Danish North Sea.
According to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission (EC): ‘This is a big moment for Europe’s green transition, and for our clean tech industry. The first ever full value chain for carbon capture and storage [CCS] in Europe. You are showing that it can be done. That we can grow our industry through innovation and competition, and at the same time remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere through ingenuity and cooperation. This is what Europe’s competitive sustainability is all about.’
The EC estimates that the European Union will need to store up to 300mn t/y of CO2 by 2050 to meet its climate goals.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder and CEO of Ineos, adds: ‘This important milestone firmly demonstrates that CCS is a technology that can deliver on a global scale. The task at hand for the industry and policymakers is now to support the continued development and deployment of CCS as an essential tool to mitigate climate change.’
According to the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI) there are 197 CCS projects currently operating on a commercial scale worldwide. The majority of the operational projects inject CO2 into the subsoil with the purpose of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Only nine projects with a dedicated geological storage purpose (ie not using EOR) are currently operational, and none carry the sole purpose of storing to mitigate climate change. Furthermore, only one of the 197 projects transports CO2 across national borders – the Weyburn-Midale project, which transports CO2 for EOR purposes via a pipeline from the US to Canada. (The Carbfix1 CO2 storage project onshore Iceland is operational, cross-border and is intended to mitigate climate change. However, it is pilot-scale, hence not part of the 197 commercial-scale projects listed by GCCSI in its 2022 report.)
According to The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), it is estimated that there is the potential to store 22 Gt of CO2 in the Danish subsoil – corresponding to approximately 700 years of Danish CO2 emissions at current levels.
