In focus: Carbon capture and storage projects gain worldwide momentum

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects are increasingly gaining more prominence in the race to make the world cleaner and more sustainable, driven by the interest from some of the most important offshore energy players.

Starting with the United States, the Bayou Bend CCS project – located along the Texas Gulf Coast – has expanded its CO2 storage footprint through the acquisition of nearly 100,000 acres onshore in Chambers and Jefferson Counties in Texas.

Bayou Bend is a joint venture between Chevron’s unit focusing on low-carbon fuels Chevron New Energies, Talos Energy, through its Talos Low Carbon Solutions division, and Carbonvert.

Combined with the previously announced approximately 40,000 acres offshore Beaumont and Port Arthur, the project’s increased acreage positions it as one of the largest carbon storage projects in the country. According to preliminary estimates for the Bayou Bend CCS project, it could potentially sequester 225 to 275 million metric tons of CO2 from industrial sources in the area.

The United States stands to see the accelerated development of new CCS projects as well, as Chevron New Energies joins forces with Japan’s energy giant JERA.

The parties signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on CCS projects both in the United States and Australia as part of their join aim to advance lower carbon solutions.

In Europe, a CCS milestone has been reached with the first-ever injection of CO2 completed in the North Sea as part of Project Greensand, developed by INEOS and Wintershall Dea.

Project Greensand will capture CO2 at an INEOS Oxide site in Zwijndrecht in Belgium, to be transported cross-border and stored in the Nini field in the Danish North Sea. The CO2 injected is stored at a depth of about 1,800 meters below the seabed.

By early April, residual emissions from the Belgian industrial plant, collectively representing up to 15,000 tonnes of CO2, will be stored during the ongoing demonstration phase.

In the short run, Project Greensand can store up to 1,5 million tonnes of CO2 per year in 2025/2026. In the final expansion phase, scheduled to begin in 2030, the project aims to store up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year in the area or 40% of Denmark’s total emission reduction target.

Wintershall Dea, one of Europe’s leading oil and gas companies, has also teamed up with Fluxys to jointly cooperate on a cross-border CO2 pipeline network connecting Belgium and Germany.

As part of the project, CO2 emissions from industrial clusters in southern Germany are to be transported to the German-Belgian border via the planned pipeline network. From there, the CO2 will be transported via the CO2 network in Belgium, developed by Fluxys, to Zeebrugge on the Belgian North Sea coast, and subsequently to offshore CCS storage locations in the North Sea.

In Norway, five companies have expressed their interest to develop projects for the injection and storage of CO2 on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).

Equinor, Neptune Energy Norway, Storegga Norge, Sval Energi and Wintershall Dea Norge have filed applications for permits to Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

The ministry is now set to process the received applications with an aim to allocate land according to the storage regulations during the first half of the year.

“The great interest in CO2 storage on the NCS is gratifying. The fact that we regularly receive applications to advertise areas and to store CO2 in these areas shows that our allocation policy is working as intended,” said Terje Aasland, Norwegian minister of Petroleum and Energy.