We thank The Straits Times for its educational coverage of climate change issues and renewable energy (Norway projects a cautionary tale about carbon capture and storage, report says, July 14).
The Norwegian Embassy is eager to assist in experiences and knowledge transfer with interested partners on carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives in Singapore and its neighbour countries. We fully support discussions and critical views on CCS initiatives in Norway, and generally, as CCS still has technological and financial challenges.
But our government stands firmly behind institutions such as the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) assessment that CCS initiatives are necessary technologies to reach our global zero-emission goals to avoid dangerous global warming. That is why Norway wants to do its part in developing this alternative, together with other emission reduction measures.
The article referred to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), expressing concerns about two specific carbon storage projects in Norway, the Sleipner and the Snohvit.
The article, mirroring the report, asks for caution about CCS as an effective greenhouse gas abatement method, and suggests that the two Sleipner and Snohvit projects and Australia’s Gorgon project are not meeting expectations with regard to efficiency and storage reliability.
As the report correctly notes, more than 150 scientific papers have been published on the Norwegian projects. They overwhelmingly conclude that the injection and storage of now more than 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) several kilometres below the sea floor is safe. Operational experience and intense seismic surveillance confirm the storage reliability expectations by the operators, government and researchers.
There have not been reports of CO2 leaking from Sleipner, in 1999 or later. It is a factual error in the IEEFA report to say that the Snohvit project unexpectedly had storage area limitations. It was the carbon capture facility that had capacity limitations.
The Sleipner and Snohvit CCS projects are recognised by academics, governmental bodies and science institutions worldwide to be proven and safe CO2 storages over decades. To put it in perspective, the 25 million tonnes removed and stored is equivalent to half of Singapore’s annual CO2 emissions.
Eivind S. Homme
Ambassador of Norway to Singapore
