Exxon joins sound storage project

today announced its participation in a major European research initiative aimed at evaluating the role that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology may play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

ExxonMobil says it will contribute over €1m and provide technical guidance to the CO2ReMoVe project, sponsored by the European Commission Directorate General for Research.

Over the next five years, CO2ReMoVe will evaluate a range of technologies to monitor the injection and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) from gas streams at the Sleipner and Snohvit fields in the Norwegian North Sea, at In Salah in the southern Saharan desert in Algeria and in Ketzin, Germany. ExxonMobil shares in the ownership of the North Sea Sleipner gas field where over one million tonnes of CO2 have been sequestered each year since 1998.

The project aims to provide a sound scientific basis for establishing guidelines for the certification of future sites for CO2 storage.

'Carbon Capture and Storage is a long-term option with significant potential to reduce CO2 emissions from large sources such as electricity generation,' said Sherri Stuewer, Vice-President, Safety, Health and Environment, ExxonMobil Corporation. 'The technology for CCS exists today, but the challenge is to further demonstrate its effectiveness and integrity and to reduce its cost.’

CCS technology separates CO2 from a gas stream, compresses it to reduce volume, transports it by pipeline to a storage site and sequesters it in geological formations. According to ExxonMobil, the technology could have a major impact on greenhouse gas emissions as it could be applicable to many large-emission sources of CO2. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that these large facilities, primarily electricity generation plants, account for nearly 60 percent of global emissions from energy use.

Along with ExxonMobil, energy industry participants in the CO2ReMoVe project include BP, ConocoPhillips, Schlumberger, Statoil, Total, Vattenfall and Wintershall.

Other participants include the International Energy Agency; DNV, an organization specializing in risk management in the oil and gas industry; and a number of national agencies and academic research organizations. The European Union will contribute €8m to the project, with the balance of €7m coming from the other participants. The project will be coordinated by the

(TNO).