• Bookstore

2,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are removed from natural gas produced on the Sleipner West field in the North Sea every day.

The carbon dioxide is injected and stored in the Utsira formation rather than being emitted into the atmosphere. This sandstone formation extends over a large area in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

The facility has been online since the autumn of 1996, recording a very high regularity.

Important tool
Many are looking to carbon storage under the seabed as an important tool in the efforts to slow global warming.

Research and monitoring of the carbon injection into the Utsira formation show that the greenhouse gas is retained in the formation and that this is an environmentally friendly and safe way of reducing climate gas emissions.

"This is a good carbon capture demonstration project. Sleipner documents that carbon storage is feasible and safe," says Rolf Håkon Holmboe, head of HSE on the Sleipner field.

"We wish to build on the experience we have gained through 12 years of operations employing carbon capture and storage techniques," says Sjur Talstad, vice president, Sleipner production.

Statoil is also considering the possibility of receiving carbon dioxide from land for injection into the Utsira formation.

The EU aims to cut Europe's carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020. Carbon storage may be one of several necessary actions, though environmental organisations warn that it is not the "silver bullet" for the coal industry, where Greenpeace say that "CSS is being used as a justification to keep building inefficient, poorly constructed coal fired power stations - the dirtiest possible way of producing electricity ever invented."

A decision by the EU Parliament as to whether, and on what conditions, such storage may be permitted is scheduled for 2008.