Reconnaissance survey for potential energy storage and carbon dioxide storage resources of petroleum reservoirs in western Europe

Natural Resources Research
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Abstract

Energy producers and utilities use oil and gas reservoirs for gas storage to meet peak seasonal demand or to supplement intermittent energy production. These reservoirs are also suitable for the long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. This study reports on a reconnaissance analysis of the potential magnitude of storage resources in 9424 known oil and gas reservoirs from 24 countries within highly industrialized western Europe. To standardize the storage resources of the oil and gas reservoirs, their volumetric capacity is expressed in terms of metric tons (mass) of CO2. Estimates of recoverable oil and gas at the surface are converted to subsurface volumes and then converted to the equivalent mass of CO2 at reservoir conditions. The results indicate 36.7 gigatons of CO2 could be stored, with oil reservoirs accounting for 32% of that total and natural gas reservoirs comprising the remaining 68%. About four-fifths of the reservoir storage resource is offshore, with about three-fourths of that offshore resource at water depths of 200 m or less. Most countries do not have the reservoir storage resources to store 15 years of CO2 at 2017 emission levels. With few exceptions the bulk of the storage is offshore for countries that do have at least 15 years of storage. The expansion of natural gas storage for strategic purposes in abandoned onshore gas reservoirs is not expected to seriously impact CO2 storage. The contribution of this analysis is the description of the spatial distribution of potential storage and physical accessibility.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Reconnaissance survey for potential energy storage and carbon dioxide storage resources of petroleum reservoirs in western Europe
Series title Natural Resources Research
DOI 10.1007/s11053-023-10218-z
Volume 32
Year Published 2023
Language English
Publisher Springer
Contributing office(s) Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center
Description 20 p.
First page 1839
Last page 1858
Other Geospatial Europe
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