A well is being drilled south of the Troll field in the North Sea to investigate whether the reservoir in the deep Johansen Formation is suitable for storage of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ).
A well is being drilled south of the Troll field in the North Sea to investigate whether the reservoir in the deep Johansen Formation is suitable for storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The Northern Lights project consisting of Equinor (operator), Shell and Total, is drilling wildcat well 31/5-7 Eos to prove sandstone and the storage potential for CO2 in the Cook and Johansen geological formations. The companies also want to examine the sealing properties of the overlying Dunlin shale.
If the well indicates good reservoir properties, the first CO2 injector will be drilled as a sidetrack from the wildcat well.
‘If the well proves sandstone with good flow properties, this part of the Johansen Formation may be well-suited as a storage facility for CO2’, said Wenche Tjelta Johansen, assistant director exploration.
She added that the Johansen Formation is situated at a depth of around 2700 m and that the wells previously been drilled down into the formation are located on the Troll field, far from this well location.
The project will be investigating the many tight layers of shale between the reservoir and the Johansen Formation to be certain that the CO2 will remain in place.
Since 1996, CO2 has been removed from the Sleipner Vest gas and injected in the Utsira Formation. One million tonnes of CO2 are stored in the subsurface every year. Since 2007, 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year has also been stored at the Snøhvit field. It is separated from the gas in the process facility on Melkøya before it is sent by pipeline down into a reservoir located around 140 km from land.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has mapped areas that may be suitable for safe, long-term storage in the Norwegian shelf. Estimates showed that, in theory, the reservoir volume on the shelf could accommodate more than 80 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to 1000 years of Norwegian CO2 emissions at the current level.
The Northern Lights drilling is part of the Norwegian full-scale project for capture, transport and storage of CO2 (CCS). This project includes capture of CO2 from two industrial companies in eastern Norway, as well as transport of liquid CO2 to a terminal in western Norway. From there, the liquid CO2 will be transported via pipeline and pumped into a reservoir at a depth of nearly 3000 m under the North Sea where it will be permanently stored.
Northern Lights will submit a plan for development and operation (PDO/PIO) in the spring. If the development plan gets the green light, Northern Lights has made a commitment to store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 for the authorities, every year for 25 years.
Norway issued feasibility studies on capture, transport and storage solutions in 2016, which showed the feasibility of realizing a full-scale CCS project.
