Stage set for Gulf Coast carbon storage hub: study
The conditions are right for the Gulf Coast to become a hub for carbon storage, a study led by the University of Austin has concluded.
The high concentration of industry in Texas and Louisiana, together with the unique geology found offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, make the Gulf Coast a good location to establish a carbon storage economy, according to the study published in mid-May in Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology. Texas is the biggest CO2 emitter in the US, while Louisiana comes second.
What is more, authorities are taking steps to encourage development.
In June, Texan governor Greg Abbott granted the Texas Railroad Authority the same regulatory authority over CO2 injection as oil and gas wells. In the previous month, the Texas General Land Office began accepting proposals for CO2 storage sites off the coast of Jefferson county.
Traditionally, oil and gas companies have captured and then stored CO2 in mature oilfields in an effort to boost oil recovery. But according to the study, a weak long-term outlook for oil and gas prices and increasing tax credits available to industries that abate their emissions make carbon storage attractive for its own sake.
"Before, we only had one way: enhanced oil recovery," former assistant secretary of energy Charles McConnell, who is now executive director of carbon management at the University of Houston, comments. "We are in a different place now. Storage in and of itself can be viable now."
The study explores how existing CO2 infrastructure can be leveraged and expanded to establish carbon storage beyond the realms of enhanced oil recovery. It also points to the suitability of offshore geological structures for storage. State-owned lands notably extend 16.7 km off the coast of Texas instead of the usual 5.55 km, under a law established when the state was a sovereign nation. This simplifies the ownership and permitting system.
"Advancing carbon capture and storage is something that we can do now," Tip Meckel, a senior research scientist at the Gulf Coast Carbon Center and one of the authors of the report, explained. "To take a big bite out of [the carbon] project file, you have to get going now."
US major ExxonMobil has floated the idea of developing a $100bn carbon capture and storage project in the Gulf Coast that could eventually abate up to 100mn metric tons/year of CO2. But given its scale, the scheme would have to be a collaborative effort between industry and the government, the company said.