INTRODUCTION

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the instruments that can be used to mitigate global climate change. CCS is not a single technology, but rather a combination of technologies that are applied in the three stages of the CCS chain, which consists of capture of carbon of dioxide from industrial installations, transport to a storage location, and the permanent geological storage of carbon dioxide in the subsoil.

CCS is regulated by international, European and national law covering the both the “environmental” and the “CCS-chain” aspects of the capture, transport and storage activities. The environmental aspects are mostly related to the capture activities at industrial installations and non-pipeline transport of carbon dioxide, whereas the CCS-chain aspects deal with the transport through pipelines and the permanent storage in subsoil storage locations.

The European Union introduced the Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) in order to incentivise low carbon technologies such as CCS. The EU-ETS aims to put a price on emissions of carbon dioxide through a cap-and-trade regime. However, the price of emission allowances has never risen to the necessary level to incentivise CCS. Another obstacle for CCS is the high cost associated with it. This is partially caused by the potential high liability risks for carbon dioxide storage operators. Finally, the perceived risks of CCS are currently so substantial that onshore CCS development is unlikely in various EU Member States. The alternative is to develop offshore CCS and the North Sea region offers opportunities for CCS. There are several industrial centres where carbon dioxide can be captured, and the North Sea has for decades been an important region for hydrocarbon activities, resulting in a significant number of pipelines, platforms, wells and subsoil reservoirs that can be reused for CCS.

In the coming decades, the offshore oil and gas industry in the North Sea region will reach the end of its lifespan and operators of offshore oil/gas platforms are obliged to decommission (i.e. remove) these platforms and close off the wells before abandoning them. Once decommissioned and sealed off, the reservoirs cannot be reused for CCS, or would require significant effort to be made available again for CCS.