A new study by Heriot-Watt University in Scotland will help to identify the UK’s best sites for carbon storage.
A new study by Heriot-Watt University in Scotland will help to identify the UK’s best sites for carbon storage.
The gas fields of the southern North Sea are the focus of the study, which has received funding from the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) and support from the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), offshore operators and data owners.
Professor John Underhill of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh believes the southern North Sea is one of the most promising options for large-scale carbon capture and storage in the UK.
‘The Southern North Sea faces three of the UK’s largest carbon emission areas: the industrial hubs of Teesside, Humberside and the Thames estuary. It also has a number of depleted gas fields that could be repurposed to store carbon. We are going to systematically examine the geology of these sites and determine which critical factors allow carbon to be safely stored over long, geological timescales,’ he said.
The team will explore the potential of other sites by mapping the geological features and their carbon storage potential. Any potential leakage points will be identified. Accurate mapping of the overburden will be used to develop mitigation strategies and early warning systems for any carbon escape or seepage.
The team will use data from the OGA’s National Data Repository (NDR), one of the largest-ever single open releases of field and infrastructure data from the UK’s oil and gas industry, which was made freely available for the first time in 2019.
Professor John Underhill added: ‘If we are to reach net zero targets we must make serious progress in carbon capture and storage. We need to identify the best sites based on their geology and evaluate the risk of leakage, so that we select the right sites, in the most logical order, and understand the total volume of carbon that could be stored. We must do this correctly and on a large scale. We won’t get a second chance to get this right, as all credibility will be lost if leakage takes place from a poorly-selected site.’
The Heriot-Watt team is currently recruiting two research associates to join the team.
