Overview of international systems for the registration of carbon dioxide geological storage potential

Abstract

The need to assess the potential of CO₂ storage complexes and their related respective storage capacities is quite a new area of study. Carbon capture and geological storage (CCS) has only recently been recognized as an efficient means of mitigating climate change. In Europe, with the exception of Norway, the significance of CCS activity only reached that critical level involving the demand for a standardized registry after 2007; furthermore, this task has been confronted by the institutions responsible for resource management. Since 2007, the capture and geological storage activity of carbon from industrial sources has developed dynamically on a worldwide scale. However, over the last 4–5 years Europe — which at one time led research in this field — has experienced a strong fallback in the spreading of CCS technologies. This is mostly related to economic problems in Europe and low carbon prices. Nevertheless, the rest of the World — e.g. the United States, Australia and China — has made notable technological progress with CCS. It is this uneven development of CCS that has led to
significantly louder demand for a standardized registry indicating the potential storage on a global scale.
The demand has also motivated several organizations operating on an international; level to develop registry systems for potential storage sites. These registry systems are quite similar to those which have been used for hydrocarbons for several decades now; this is due to the fact that most of the applied technology — as well as the potential storage sites themselves — are similar. However, there are still some specific characteristics of carbon storage that trammel the general use of some of the definitions applied to hydrocarbons. This paper deals with the presentation of some of the registry systems developed for carbon geological storage over recent decades. The present study focuses mainly on the most complex system proposed by the SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers). The last part of the paper attempts to classify potential storage sites in Hungary, in line with the SPE system. (It should be noted that the United Nations Framework
Classification — UNFC — has produced Draft Specifications for the Application of UNFC-2009 to Injection Projects for the Purpose of Geological Storage. However, owing to the fact that the content of this classification has not yet been finalized, it is not dealt with here.)