Three billion extra barrels of oil could be squeezed out of the North Sea using pioneering technology that is expected to create up to 10,000 jobs across Scotland, the Press and Journal can reveal.
Following a study into the country’s potential for carbon capture and storage (CCS), First Minister Alex Salmond has announced that almost 50billion tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases from power stations could be buried beneath Scottish waters in the next 200 years.
The government has now drawn up a map containing dozens of potential sites beneath the seabed, including 29 depleted oil and gas fields.
The P&J understands the technology could be used to extract more than 3billion extra barrels of oil from 14 of the fields that are due to be shut down over the next 20 years.
That includes about 500millions extra barrels from the Brent field when it ceases production in 2015 and another 420million barrels from the Forties field, which is also close to closing.
Last night, industry body Oil and Gas UK described the announcement as presenting a “tantalising” opportunity.
The joint study, undertaken by the Scottish Government and Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage, is the first comprehensive look at the technology in the UK and presents a site-by-site assessment of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage areas.
The CO2 would be dumped in seabed pockets called saline aquifers, which are porous rock formations filled with high-concentration salt water. These are located below a harder surface of rocks, which act to seal in the CO2.
According to the study, the North Sea has the capacity to store up to 46billion tonnes of CO2.
The gas would be collected at power stations, converted to liquid form and then piped offshore, where many existing oil platforms, as well as new hubs, could be used to pump it into the saline aquifers.
Some former oil and gas fields below the seabed could also be used for storage, with the carbon that is pumped into about half of them being used to extract extra oil through “enhanced oil recovery” techniques.
Announcing the findings of the study at Edinburgh Castle yesterday, Mr Salmond said they were a “milestone” in Scotland’s energy policy and of huge significance to Europe.
“Our ambition is to become a world leader in reducing harmful emissions and producing clean, green energy as part of our contribution to tackling climate change,” he said.
“The conclusions of this study underline just how vast Scotland’s potential in CCS is.
“We have the capacity to capture safely and store emissions from industrial coal-fired plants for the next 200 years.”
He added: “The development of CCS in Scotland, including power stations and storage networks, has the potential to support 10,000 jobs.
“The UK Government’s announcement last week about plans to establish four carbon capture demonstration projects in the UK is welcome.
“Scotland is ready now to lead on one or hopefully even two of these projects.”
The majority of jobs linked to the technology would be new jobs, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said later.
Other posts would be safeguarded as power stations upgraded and some jobs would migrate from oil and gas to CCS.
The study said Scotland’s offshore storage capacity for carbon emissions was greater than that of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany combined.
It claims there is even enough capacity to develop pipeline networks to mainland Europe to store a percentage of the rest of the continent’s emissions as well.
Edinburgh University professor of sedimentary geology Stuart Haszeldine said it could play a “critical role” in reducing the worst effects of global warming.
“The information gathered in this study tells us where the challenges are with CO2 storage,” he said.
“Now we have to take the first big steps on the path to emission reductions.”
Last night, Scottish Power said it could have the UK’s first carbon capture scheme set up at Longannet Power Station within five years.
Frank Mitchell, the firm’s generation director, said: “Today’s report means that CCS technology is one step closer to moving from the laboratory into reality and, within the next five years, Scottish Power could have a full-scale demonstration project working at Longannet, utilising these central North Sea resources to store C02.”
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