DECC publishes licensing plans for undersea carbon storage

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published details of how it will license the storage of carbon dioxide under the seabed in a response to industry comments on its recent proposal for carbon storage schemes.

Licensing of carbon storage activities will be in conjunction with The Crown Estate and follow largely the pattern set for offshore oil and gas exploration. Only licensed entities will be issued with a permit to operate storage facilities.

“Carbon capture and storage is essential for mitigating climate change while maintaining energy security, said energy minister Charles Hendry in a statement. “There is enough potential under the North Sea to store more than 100 years-worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the UK’s power fleet and we need to make the most of that.”

A licence would cover exploration and appraisal, operation and post-closure and would convey an exclusive but time-limited right to apply for the storage permit required by the EC Directive on carbon storage (2009/31/EC) which came into force on 25 June 2009.

DECC envisages that its licences will refer to an essentially two-dimensional plan, authorising the relevant activities within that area and its downward projection, in the same way as the established petroleum licences. But the storage permit when issued will contain three-dimensional definitions of the storage site and the storage complex.

The initial agreement for lease issued by The Crown Estate will relate to the same area as the licence, and the subsequent lease will incorporate the same definition of the site as that in the permit.

Non-intrusive exploration can be conducted under a general non-site specific licence issued by DECC, which applies throughout the UK offshore area, and allows non-intrusive investigation as well as drilling to a depth of 350m. But once a developer has identified a specific site to explore in greater detail, a carbon storage licence will be required. At this stage it will also be necessary to obtain property access rights from TCE to enable intrusive exploration, and to enable test injection where necessary.

DECC is keen that the regulatory regime for storage does not slow the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and will lay the regulations before parliament as soon as possible.