Abstract

The project will establish a framework of best environmental practices to guide the management of offshore CO₂ injection and storage and as addendum to the EU directive on "Geological Storage of CO₂" for the marine realm. This includes the quantitative assessment of potential and actual impacts on marine ecosystems at a CO₂ injection facility and the entire storage site. A comprehensive monitoring concept for storage sites will be developed comprising innovative techniques that are apt to detect different modes and levels of leakage including that of pre-cursors. Field studies at operated and prospective sites (Sleipner, Snøhvit) and natural CO₂ seeps (North Sea, Mediterranean Sea) are completed by lab experiments and numerical simulations on different scales. An integral part of the project is to transfer this knowledge into a risk management concept and an economic valuing of the costs of leakage, monitoring, mitigation measures, and a clear communication framework. An understanding of the precautionary principle as primary tool for balancing the environmental risks will be built.

The ECO₂ project (n^o 265847) has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration.