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Snohvit CO2 storage under way LNG plant’s rocky startup caused increase in emissions but situation may improve if technical problems are resolved Sarah Hurst For Petroleum News
Norway’s StatoilHydro has begun carbon injection and storage at the Snohvit gas and condensate field in the Barents Sea, the company announced April 23. The CO2 is now being reinjected into the ground and stored in a formation which lies beneath the gas-bearing formations on the Snohvit field. At full capacity on Snohvit, 700,000 tonnes of CO2 will be stored per year, which equals the emission volume from 280,000 cars.
The natural gas which is piped from the Snohvit field to the Melkoya LNG plant outside Hammerfest contains 5 to 8 percent CO2. At the onshore Melkoya plant, CO2 is separated from the natural gas and piped back to a sandstone formation at the edge of the Snohvit reservoir, where it is stored 2,600 meters (8,530 feet) beneath the seabed. A shale cap which lies above the sandstone will seal the reservoir and ensure that the CO2 stays underground without leaking to the surface.
Startup issues continue The story was different in 2007, when CO2 emissions from flaring at Melkoya accounted for most of a 2.7 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by Norway. Just over 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 were emitted from Melkoya in 2007, according to preliminary figures produced by Statistics Norway, mainly from flaring due to production difficulties.
Melkoya is not completely over its startup problems: In early May the plant halted production for the second time in six months to resolve technical issues.
“It’s true that we’ve had some problems with the budget, with some of the technology and with CO2 emissions,” Snohvit spokesman Sverre Kojedal told AFP.
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