The use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as part of the range
of measures designed to reduce the UK's CO2 emissions continues
to draw closer. A recent research study by the Scottish Centre for
Carbon Storage and the Scottish Government (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/04/28114540/0)
concluded that Scotland has extensive offshore CO2 storage
resources (saline aquifers and hydrocarbon fields) similar in
capacity to that of Norway's and larger than that of the
Netherlands, Germany and Denmark combined.
The CO2 to be captured and stored comes largely from large
industrial sites such as power stations and large industrial plants
and is to be transported offshore by pipeline. Whilst aspects of
the existing regulatory framework relating to the piping of fossil
fuels and offshore oil exploration/production could be adapted for
the purposes of CCS, it is apparent that new regulation will be
required in order for CCS to become a viable, large-scale
industry.
