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IOGCC panel releases carbon sequestration recommendations
Petroleum News
A task force of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission has released a regulatory framework for carbon capture and geological storage, or geological sequestration. Carbon capture and geological storage, the task force said in a statement, “is likely to be a key strategy in the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere.”
The task force, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, said it “recommended that U.S. states and Canadian provinces play a critical role in the regulation of CCGS, given their experience and expertise in the current regulation of oil and natural gas production and natural gas storage.”
The working model for carbon sequestration would likely be injection of CO2 into mature oil fields for enhanced oil recovery, the task force said, a common practice which “has been maximizing resources for 30 years by recovering additional oil from older wells.” The task force looked at four analogues: naturally occurring CO2 in geologic reservoirs; CO2 injection for enhanced oil recovery; storage of natural gas in geologic reservoirs; “and the historically safe operation of injecting acid gas into underground formations.”
The task force spent a year examining technical, policy and regulatory issues related to safe storage of CO2 in depleted oil and natural gas fields, saline formations and coal beds. The task force divided carbon capture and geological storage into four components: capture, transportation, injection and post-injection storage. Initial storage for EOR The initial development of CO2 storage in the United States is likely to be “relatively pure streams of CO2 that prove to be economic for use in CO2 EOR projects.” There are already more than 3,500 miles of high-pressure CO2 pipelines in the United States, the task force said, and there are also numerous parallels between CO2 transport and natural gas transport, and most rules and regulations for natural gas transport by pipeline in the United States include CO2, so there is “little necessity for additional state and provincial regulations in this area.”
In the injection area the task force recommended that CO2 injection regulations be built on the framework already in place for CO2, EOR, natural gas and acid gas injection. The task force did recommend, however, that a distinction will need to be made “between injection for purposes of EOR, which has a project time frame, and injection for non-EOR purposes, which spans a much longer time frame.”
The task force recommended that CO2 injection for enhanced oil recovery continue under existing EOR regulations and said regulations for CO2 injection for non-EOR purposes “can and should incorporate existing state and provincial natural gas storage statutes and existing regulatory frameworks.” If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends that the Underground Injection Control Program of the Safe Drinking Water Act cover non-EOR CO2 injection wells, the task force suggested EPA work closely with states on any recommendations for UIC applicability to non-EOR CO2 injection wells, and said if new UIC regulations are contemplated the task force “strongly suggests a new classification for such wells that allows for regulation dealing with economic considerations not contemplated by the UIC program.”
The report is available on the IOGCC Web page: www.iogcc.oklaosf.state.ok.us/
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