Project ECO2S: Commercial Scale Risk Management for CO2 Storage

Abstract

The Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) is a USDOE-NETL funded effort to certify and develop large-scale commercial CO₂ storage sites. Project ECO₂S is a CarbonSAFE venture with the main objective of demonstrating the suitability in an area near Mississippi Power’s (MPC) Kemper County Energy Facility (north of Meridian, Mississippi) for the commercial-scale injection and storage of CO₂. Project ECO₂S was designed as an accelerated project aimed at establishing an early CO₂ storage (ECO₂S) location capable of providing at least 50 million tonnes of storage capacity. This project is funded principally by the USDOE-NETL with support from Mississippi Power Company, and is managed by the Southern States Energy Board.

A critical component to the development and execution of a commercial scale CO₂ injection and storage project is to comprehensively identify risk factors. Several key areas of risks to project success for commercial scale CO₂ storage include: geologic uncertainties; project management and planning; outreach; permitting and site access agreements; infrastructure development; the contractual and regulatory pathways; and a commercial development plan. Identifying and evaluating every important source of risk is of key interest to future owners/operators of such a project. Project success – the central entity that is “at risk” – consists both of project goals and objectives (e.g. contractual pathways) and of preclusions and avoidances (e.g. injury, damage to environment or reputation, etc.).

GHG Underground LLC designed and conducted a workshop-focused process to identify and evaluate risks. Within this process, project team members and stakeholders provided specific information about the project, to share this information among those involved with the risk process, and to provide semi-quantitative risk-evaluation data (e.g. Likelihood and Severity values) for analysis and reporting. The results of the ECO2S risk workshop will be presented.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90323 ©2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 20-23, 2018