Facts:

Main developer: Sonatrach

The In Salah gas project in central Algeria is a joint venture between national energy company Sonatrach, BP and Statoil to produce 9 billion cubic metres of market-ready gas from natural gas reserves.

At the Krechba gas field production site, rather than venting CO2 (an established practice on similar projects) it is compressed and re-injected into the aquifer zone of one of the shallow gas reservoirs two kilometres below the surface. About 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 is injected every year.

The project uses a similar separation process deployed by Statoil at the Sleipner West field off Norway using amine capture technology. The CO2 is then re-injected at high pressure into the Krechba reservoir.

The In Salah fields account for about 12% of Algeria’s total gas output. The country is the third-largest supplier of gas to Europe.

The acceptance of CCS into the Clean Development Mechanism in late 2011 will be welcomed by the In Salah partners, who had previously submitted a proposal to do just that, drawing on their experience at In Salah.

Other Sources and Press Release:

Monitoring CO2 storage
BP In Salah project website
Statoil In Salah project website

Storage:

The CO2 injected at Krechba will be stored indefinitely, according to the consortium. In 2004, a joint industry programme was started by Sonatrach, BP, StatoilHydro and other R&D groups in Europe and the US. The goal is to verify long-term storage of CO2 as a viable option for industry.

Companies involved

Homepage:

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.