Norway may store CO2 under North Sea from 2011

By Wojciech Moskwa

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway could begin storing carbon dioxide emissions in porous rock formations under the North Sea from late 2011, a Norwegian feasibility study showed on Thursday.

Gassnova, a state-funded development firm, said its study recommended storage of CO2 in two best suited areas off Norway's western coast and transport to location by pipeline rather than ship. No cost estimates have been revealed.

Norway, one of the world's biggest oil and gas producers, has piled state funds into creating technology to capture and store carbon emissions, initially from two gas-fired power plants to be built in Kaarsto and Mongstad on the west coast.

"A full-scale transport and storage solution could be in operation as early as from late 2011 or early 2012, in time to receive CO2 from ... Kaarsto," Gassnova said. "This assumes that a decision on investments is made by late 2008."

A United Nations study said that carbon capture and storage (CCS) may be one of the best ways to cut emissions of man-made heat-trapping gasses blamed for global warming, but development has been slowed by high costs as well as legal and safety risks.

Norway's plans envisage cooling CO2 gas into a more compact liquid form and injecting it into a porous, water-bearing rock formation, or aquifer, under the seabed through a well.

The location is selected on the rock's ability to safely receive and store carbon dioxide. Legal concerns include the responsibility for maintaining CO2 storage sites.

Gassnova recommended possible CO2 storage in the Johansen formation south-west of Mongstad and in the Utsira formation.