Carbon Storage Project, Greensand, Gets Funding from Danish Government

Image credit: Maersk Drilling

On December 8, 2021, the Danish Energy Agency announced that it will award DKK 197m to the consortium backing Project Greensand for carbon capture and storage (CCS), in support of Denmark’s ambitions to reach a 70% CO2 reduction by 2030. The Greensand consortium is led by INEOS and includes Maersk Drilling as the project’s preferred drilling contractor among the 29 partners in total.

“Receiving the biggest grant in the history of the EUDP program underlines the strong support and recognition from the Danish government of the importance of CCS as part of the solution catalogue to achieve Denmark’s ambitions on emission reductions. Over the past years we have seen the cost of CO2 emissions in the EU increase significantly – from around 14 euro in 2018 to 85 euro per ton today. This builds strong support for the entire CCS value chain and move CO2 storage projects like Greensand faster to commercialization. Our estimates show that up to 200 CO2 wells could be in the pipeline in the North Sea alone between 2024 and 2030,” said Marika Reis, Chief Innovation Officer, Maersk Drilling.

The award is based on a political decision by the Danish government and a broad majority of political parties which in December 2020 led to the allocation of a total of DKK 197m earmarked for the development and demonstration of CO2 storage in the Danish North Sea. The scope of Project Greensand holds the potential to account for all of the CO2 storage proposed in the Danish Climate Program.

“We are very pleased and thankful for the trust that has been shown to the entire consortium behind Project Greensand. Carbon capture storage is one of the steps needed to reach the ambitious climate goals in Denmark, and we as a consortium are very proud to be allowed to contribute to that through this project,” said David Bucknall, CEO, INEOS Energy.

About Project Greensand

  • The primary objective of the Greensand project is to safely and permanently store up to 8m tonnes of CO2 per year in the INEOS-operated Siri area.
  • The storage potential in Project Greensand is 0.5-1 million tonnes CO2 per year from 2025, increasing to 4-8 million tonnes CO2 per year by 2030. This would account for all of the CO2 storage proposed in the Danish Climate Program.
  • The Greensand project has three phases: Appraisal, Pilot (proof of concept), and Full project execution.
  • The completed Appraisal phase included field owners INEOS and Wintershall Dea, plus consortium members Maersk Drilling and GEUS.
  • During the Appraisal phase, the project cleared a major hurdle as DNV independently certified that the Nini West field is conceptually suitable for injecting 0.45 million tons CO2 per year per well for a 10-year period, and that the subsea reservoir can safely contain the CO2.
  • Pilot phase planning is now getting underway with the potential to start immediately following the implementation of the agreements outlined in the Danish North Sea Agreement of December 2020.
  • In the Pilot phase, the consortium has been expanded to a total of 29 partners, comprising major Danish companies, international companies with expertise in carbon capture, international research institutes and universities, as well as Danish start-ups with ground-breaking ideas on monitoring technologies.
  • As part of the commitments made for the Pilot phase, Maersk Drilling has been named the preferred drilling contractor for Project Greensand, with a right to all drilling work involved on market-rate terms until the end of 2027.
  • The final investment decision for the full-scale project will commence after proof of concept.
  • The Paleocene sandstone fields of the Siri Area in the Danish North Sea are located at an optimal depth of 1.5-2.2 km and are encased in one of the most competent cap rocks in the North Sea. The area is geologically extremely stable and has retained gas and oil for 10-20 million years, constituting a very safe permanent storage site for CO2.

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