The International CCS Knowledge Centre has launched a new video series. The series, “Lead. Care. Adapt,” features 10-minute discussions with sustainability experts working to advance climate action including the role of carbon capture and storage (CCS) around the world.
In the second video in the series, GCCC’s Katherine Romanak talks about the opportunities for CCS in developing countries and explains the support available to these regions to help move projects forward. Watch the video to learn what the Gulf Coast Carbon Center is doing to to lead, care, and adapt today for a better tomorrow.
Summary: In 2018, the GCCC was awarded a large grant by the Department of Energy to study carbon capture and offshore storage in the western Gulf of Mexico. Together with partners in the eastern Gulf, the project leaders hosted their second annual partnership meeting entirely via webinar after travel plans to New Orleans were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Recently, the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) joined the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) for 2 days to conduct their annual joint partnership meeting—for the first time via webinar. Participants provided key updates on the research projects they lead on carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Gulf of Mexico region.
In 2018, the GCCC and the SSEB became principal investigators of two
different multi-million-dollar projects funded by the Department of
Energy (DOE) to explore carbon capture and offshore geological carbon
storage in the subsurface under the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of
Mexico Partnership for Offshore Carbon Storage (GoMCarb), led by the
GCCC, explores the potential in the western Gulf region from western
Louisiana to Texas. The second project, led by SSEB and called SECARB
Offshore, explores the potential in the eastern Gulf region from eastern
Louisiana to Florida.
GoMCarb researchers gave updates throughout the first day on topics ranging from characterizing the subsurface geology of potential CO2 storage sites to transportation and infrastructure needs, risk assessment, subsurface monitoring, and stakeholder engagement in the GoMCarb project. GCCC members, including Susan Hovorka, Tip Meckel, Alex Bump, Sahar Bakhshian, Emily Moskal, Dallas Dunlap, and Iulia Olariu, gave presentations. Presentations were also given by partners at the U.S. Geological Survey, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Rice University, Lamar University, Total, Trimeric, and The University of Texas at Austin petroleum engineering, geophysics, and advertising departments.
The SECARB Offshore and the GoMCarb projects advance and mature a
series of offshore studies funded by the DOE. At the meeting,
researchers presented maps of dozens of structurally defined fetch and
trap areas with the potential to be developed as storage complexes. The
internal sedimentary architecture of several areas shows favorable
stacked traps and seals as well as defines the bounding faults. New work
on infrastructure has advanced the potential for pipeline reuse, and,
for the first time, risk-assessment work considered the impact and
mitigation of offshore well blowouts that intersect stored CO2
plumes. The researchers are excited about the opportunities ahead for
offshore CCS in the Gulf States, matched by the recent uptick in
industry interest.
The GoMCarb project runs through 2023. Each year, the GCCC and SSEB hold a joint partnership meeting to provide updates. For more details on the Gulf of Mexico Partnership for Offshore Carbon Storage, visit the project webpage.
GCCC is delighted to announce the release of the latest Report of Investigations from the Bureau of Economic Geology titled, Geological CO2 Sequestration Atlas of Miocene Strata, Offshore Texas State Waters. Ramón Treviño and Tip Meckel are the editors of the Atlas, which summarizes research undertaken as part of a multiyear study (2009-2014) of Texas State Waters and the adjacent Federal Offshore Continental Shelf. The goal of the study was to assess and analyze existing data from historical hydrocarbon-industry activities in a regional transect of the Texas coast in order to verify the ability of Miocene-age rocks of the region to safely and permanently store large amounts of anthropogenic (industrial) CO2.
Perhaps the best reason for assessing near-offshore Texas waters is their location in the Gulf of Mexico basin, one of the world’s largest accumulations of porous sedimentary rocks with proven fluid-trapping capabilities. Prior hydrocarbon exploration history has set the stage for successful and low-risk carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment at offshore locations in general, and the near-offshore waters of Texas in particular. Benefits of these offshore locations include suitable geology, abundant and high-quality geologic data sets, proximity to CO2 sources, reduced risk to shallow sources of drinking water, higher likelihood of public acceptance than for onshore locations, and favorable leasing scenarios from single landholders.
The Atlas provides a resource for exploring the geological CO2 sequestration potential of the near-offshore waters of Texas via large-scale regional and qualitative, as well as detailed quantitative, information that can help operators quickly assess CO2 sequestration potential at specific sites. This is the first comprehensive attempt to accomplish this goal in the near offshore Gulf Coast and United States.
