Carbon Capture And Storage: It's All About The Pore Space

A key element to the western Canadian carbon capture and storage (CCS) landscape is the approach each jurisdiction has taken to who owns pore space rights.

We usually think in terms of ownership of land and ownership of the minerals and petroleum under the land. However, for purposes of carbon storage, the issue is ownership of the empty spaces under the land. For example, places where there used to be minerals and petroleum before extraction. That's where the CO2 will be stored in a carbon storage project. These empty spaces are called pore spaces, and their ownership is called pore space rights.

A commercial-scale CCS storage project may be less practical in a jurisdiction where the pore space rights are broadly held and the project proponent would have to assemble permissions from multiple landowners and other stakeholders. British Columbia and Alberta have addressed this issue with similar approaches whereby B.C. has the right to access pore space without