Report on the international regulatory requirements on CO2 geological storage and site abandonment

 

The objective of this document is to discuss the European and international regulations covering carbon dioxide storage and specially the site abandonment period starting after the end of CO₂ injection. According to these regulations, the liability for the storage site can be transferred to the licensing authority/government once the safety and conformity of monitoring with model predictions has been demonstrated. In the EU the CO₂ storage Directive 2009/31/EC set out the regulatory regime and guidance for permitting CO₂ storage and while a few EU countries have already transposed this directive to national law, most are still tasked with formulating their own national regulations. Around the world, relevant bills and regulations have been introduced in recent years too. In addition, regulations originating from the oil and gas sector concerning well abandonment are also relevant to CO₂ storage well abandonment.