Jun 2008 - OPEC

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Carbon Capture and Storage C S Øyvind Hagen/StatoilHydro OPEC bulletin 6/08 C 20 Existing technology good enough to take innovative process to next level The potential of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help society adapt to a more carbon-constrained world has been much lauded of late. The OPEC Bulletin’s Steve Hughes recently attended a lecture by Schlumberger Carbon Services Vice President Hanspeter Rohner — someone who has been involved in the fledgling industry from the very beginning — to find out just what sort of future he thinks CCS has.
CCS: Facing up to the future “Of course there are going to be challenges,” says Schlumberger Carbon Services Vice President Hanspeter Rohner. “But I think there is enough experience in the oil and gas industry to handle most of the challenges that are going to come our way.” In Vienna to deliver a presentation as part of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Vienna Basin lecture circuit, Rohner is referring to the testing times that lie ahead for the energy industry — and society as a whole — as it attempts to adapt to the evolution toward a more carbon-constrained world. The challenges involved are not insignificant — especially given that fossil fuels are expected to retain their position as the leading global energy source for the foreseeable future. But Rohner, like many in the energy industry, is facing the future head on. As the world’s foremost supplier of oil and gas technology and project management solutions, Schlumberger has long been interested in one of the major possible solutions to the carbon issue: “We began looking at carbon capture and storage (CCS) around ten years ago,” he explains. “I’m not a scientist, but I’m listening to what thousands of scientists have been working on.” In the news Right on cue, just days before the Vienna lecture on the methodology and technology required for the geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas hit the headlines once more. Newspapers everywhere reported that the carbon issue was worse than first thought. This prompted industry experts to call for faster progress: ‘We need to get better at carbon capture and sequestration very quickly,’ came the message. But Rohner does not need reminding and heeded the signals long ago. As far as he is concerned, CCS already represents a practical solution. Although he recognizes that the technology will evolve over time, he argues that the oil and gas industry’s existing tools are perfectly good enough for the time being. “Today, we have to live with what we have,” he says with a shrug. After all, CO is frequently used for 2 enhanced oil recovery across the industry. To prove his point, Rohner embarks on his lecture and reels off an impressive list of Schlumberger Carbon Services’ CCS achievements to date. Although only three examples of large-scale commercial projects currently exist — they are Sleipner, owned by Norway’s Statoil; In Salah in Algeria, a joint venture between BP, Statoil and Sonatrach (see OPEC Bulletin January 2008); and the Weyburn oil field project in Canada — Rohner and his colleagues have been involved in them all. In addition, they’re engaged in many more earlier-stage projects across the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan. Further illustrating the relevance of today’s technology, Rohner addresses the nitty-gritty. He describes the rigorous screening and selection of potential CCS sites and the extensive subsurface characterization necessary to establish whether a particular geological formation meets the requirements for the long-term injection of CO2. He talks about designing site-specific injection and monitoring systems for long-term CO2 storage to Hanspeter Rohner, Schlumberger Carbon Services Vice President (photo: Schlumberger). Above: An illustration of Statoil’s Sleipner field. OPEC bulletin 6/08 21
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Page 25 and 26: The In Salah gas project in Algeria
Page 27 and 28: OPEC bulletin 6/08 25
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Page 35 and 36: Above (l-r): Gerhard Roiss, OMV Dep
Page 37 and 38: By Steve Hughes In energy industry
Page 39 and 40: from across the region and to turn
Page 41 and 42: of an increasingly office-bound wor
Page 43 and 44: The OPEC Award for Journalism — N
Page 45 and 46: Votava/PID n Sunday, April 13, 2008
Page 47 and 48: Jose Hidalgo In his remarks, Häupl
Page 49 and 50: 1926. In going to the leader of the
Page 51 and 52: looking to establish cooperation on
Page 53 and 54: The institution honoured its pledge
Page 55 and 56: nickel prices dropped by 7.4 per ce
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Page 61 and 62: Table A: World crude oil demand/sup
Page 63 and 64: Graph 1: Evolution of the OPEC Refe
Page 65 and 66: Table and Graph 6: Caribbean market
Page 67: OPEC offers a range of publications

Jun 2008 - OPEC

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