01/03/11 Eunomia report highlights national importance of CO2 storage in the East Irish Sea

East Irish Sea: Key to UK Climate Targets

1st March 2011

Decades of industrial carbon emissions from the UK and Ireland could be stored in depleted gas fields deep beneath the East Irish Sea (EIS) according to a new study by Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) experts Eunomia.

It is widely thought that the UK has Europe’s most favourable offshore geology for CCS and with the infrastructure and skills base of the UK’s oil and gas industry it can become a global leader in CCS. This new study shows that whilst the North Sea provides possible storage sites for the eastern seaboard, the EIS has the capacity to provide carbon dioxide storage sites to enable decarbonisation of the remaining fossil-fuel powered industry in the UK.

Sponsored by Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd and Peel Energy Ltd, the Eunomia report shows that unlike other CCS clusters being developed in the UK, focusing attention on offshore storage area opens up opportunities to emitters from multiple regions. This in turn allows the sharing of infrastructure costs across a wider industry base; essential given the multi-billion pound sums involved to build the infrastructure.

The report shows that the UK can continue to benefit from the EIS gas fields long after the gas has gone. Not only can the existing infrastructure be reused, but the skills base and service providers can also benefit, protecting jobs and the economy in the area.

Professor Stephenson, Head of Science (Energy) at the British Geological Survey says:

“The EIS hydrocarbon fields represent up to 1 billion tonnes of CO2 storage capacity and we believe that it is important that these should be developed for CCS in the future. The study shows that there is a significant opportunity to develop CCS clusters on the West coast of the UK and the East coast of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland”.

The EIS is surrounded by a range of large-scale CO2 emitters in North West England, North and South Wales, Northern Ireland, East Ireland and Western Scotland. The major of emitters across these six regions emit around 50 million tonnes a year of CO2. These six regions of emitters, or ‘mini-clusters’, could be linked to the EIS CO2 storage sites which have sufficient capacity (over 1 billion tonnes), assuming a phased roll-out of CCS, to store emissions until at least 2050.


Download The East Irish Sea CCS Cluster documents in full below:
East Irish Sea: Key to UK Climate Targets: Full Press Release
The East Irish Sea CCS Cluster: Summary Report
The East Irish Sea CCS Cluster: Full Report
The East Irish Sea CCS Cluster: Appendices to Report