OSLO: Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is to cooperate with the USA on the storage of CO2 in underground reservoirs. Such geological storage is the solution that professionals believe is the best one for limiting climate change gas problems. DNV is to provide systematics that will confirm the actual reductions in emissions and form the basis for crediting the reductions in national and international climate change gas accounts.

Although the USA does not participate in the Kyoto Protocol, it has initiated a number of measures to combat the emission problem. The USA’s Department of Energy has divided the country into seven regions, two of which have now entered into a formal collaboration with DNV.

This collaboration will cover large-scale testing, modelling, data gathering and risk assessments relating to the underground storage of CO2. Among other things, DNV will develop a method for calculating how much CO2 is actually stored. This will also confirm the size of the CO2 emissions that were actually prevented by the natural gas being burnt in power stations where the CO2 from the combustion process is pumped down into underground reservoirs or oil fields again, where it is stored for thousands of years.

The Research Council of Norway and Gassnova support the 3-year collaboration, which is worth NOK 9.4 million. The Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and Aker Kvaerner Geo will also be involved.

Basis for calculating emission credits
“The goal is to arrive at systematics that enables verification of the emission reductions so that these can be included in climate change gas accounts. Such systematics will also form a basis for calculating emis¬sion credits that companies can invest in, as the Kyoto Protocol makes arrangements for,” explains Ståle Selmer-Olsen, DNV’s project manager. “It’s particularly interesting that a Norwegian company is world leading in this field and that the Americans want to cooperate with us as the only foreign partner,” he says.

Using current technology, an emission volume equivalent to very many times the world’s annual emissions can be stored in reservoirs for several thousands of years. However, many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have to be put in place before such a solution can be implemented.

The following states form part of the collaboration: Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Texas, Wyoming and Kansas, as well as the Canadian province British Columbia. The plan is to have the project registered under the cooperation agreement between Norway and the USA relating to research and development in the energy sector.

Wide experience
Over the past seven years, DNV has been involved in various projects concerning climate change. The company is world leading when it comes to developing and delivering services that verify emission reductions so that the world can have confidence in the solutions chosen. DNV is also highly advanced when it comes to developing and qualifying technology to capture, transport and store CO2.