A report published last week by the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute shows that despite a rise in projected costs and cancellations by some European countries, 26 more CCS projects were active or planned by the end of 2010, for a grand total of 234 projects, 77 of which are large-scale integrated projects (LSIPs). The United States attracted the largest share of LSIPs and continues to dominate project activities, also thanks to the fact that it is increasingly recurring to injecting carbon dioxide into semi-depleted oilfields to help extract crude oil, which is currently trading at around $113 a barrel, raising revenues. Most of the projects are in developing countries, with some emerging markets like China.

Europe has experienced the largest number of cancellations and delays of LSIPs but has also had the most number of projects move forward in the asset lifecycle. The report also looks at the progress made in CO2 storage technologies, recognizing significant advances in national and regional high-level storage assessments during the past two years in Australia, Canada, China, India, Europe and the United States. The report concludes that further research and large-scale demonstrations are needed to develop most storage types and improve methods and technologies for managing related risks. Regarding CCS costs, the report shows that studies released in 2010 present cost estimates “consistently higher than those estimated only two to three years ago” and that “due to changing methodologies and the inclusion of previously omitted items, costs are now suggested to be 15-30 per cent higher than earlier estimates”.

The report is available at
http://www.globalccsinstitute.com/resources/publications/global-status-ccs-2010

Climate Policy News

• This news is extracted from the Climate Policy News : a CMCC weekly column that summarises the latest news on international climate change agreements, the updates on the carbon market and the energy and technology updates in the realm of climate change. Go to the web page and see all previous issues since March 2007.
• This week: EU-ETS: aviation cap for 2012 announced; Report: the Global Status of CCS; Bill trumps EPA’s power to regulate GHG; The carbon market this week. Download the March 7-13, 2011 Newsletter [pdf 137 kb]