In cooperation with a Norwegian research group, NGI was awarded funding from The Norwegian Research Council for a research program for CO2 storage. The program has been titled SUCCESS and is one of the new research centres for environmentally friendly energy (FME).

Illustration StatoilHydro

SUCCESS is an acronym for Subsurface CO2 storage - Critical Elements and Superior Strategy. Responsible institution for the program is Christian Michelsen Research (CMR). The other partners are:

• Institute for Energy Technology (IFE)
• Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
• Norges Geotekniske Institutt (NGI)
• Unifob
• University of Bergen
• University of Oslo (UiO)
• University of Svalbard (UNIS )

NGI's role in the center is to act as activity leader for the monitoring, which is one of the four focus areas in SUCCESS:

• CO2 gas behavior in the reservoir
• Sealing
• Monitoring
• Consequence of the marine environment if leakage

In addition, NGI contribute with laboratory investigations and geomechanical studies of CO2-gas behavior in the reservoir and sealing.

Background

Climate change is one of the most important challenges of this century. To solve this development and application of technologies for carbon capture and storage of CO2 (CCS) is needed. CO2 capture is a costly and complex process. Much research and development is done in this area, but it has been placed less emphasis on CO2 storage. Although knowledge and experience in the oil drilling and oil recovery can be used, there is a great lack of knowledge about the effect of injecting CO2 underground. Such knowledge is crucial for achieving international goals on an annual deposit of 15 -20 Gt CO2.

In addition to the four focus areas mentioned above, SUCCESS will have a "CO2-school", which is an important program  for education. The planned activities are directed against important knowledge needs, and include fundamental experimental and theoretical studies, analysis of rock samples, development of mathematical models, numerical modelling, and testing in field laboratories.

The SUCCESS consortium has considerable expertise in fundamental disciplines such as structural geology, sedimentology, reservoir characterization, geo modeling, reservoir modeling, experimental fluid flow and mineral reactions, geochemistry, geomechanics, petro physics and marine ecology. The center will also collaborate with other institutions and international research networks.

Contact information:
Arvid Nøttvedt, Christian Michelsen Research (CMR)
e-mail: arvid@cmr.no, tel: 55574040 / 48048694