France launches first stage of underground CO2 storage

It is certainly not Texas and its subsoil full of hydrocarbons, but France also has oil deposits, old or still active, some of which will be used to accommodate the CO2 emitted by industries.

Minister Roland Lescure will launch on Friday "a call for expressions of interest" targeting in particular hydrocarbon players so that they propose projects for burying CO2 in these deposits, or even in rock storage.

The government is particularly targeting the few companies that produce around 1% of the oil consumed in France, such as Vermillion or Maurel & Prom.

“Several signs of interest from companies (...) often in partnership with industrialists”, have already been reported to Bercy.

The announcement, which will be made officially on Friday during a visit by the minister to the Technip Energies factory in Sens, in Yonne, marks "the realization of the launch of France's storage strategy", indicated its office at AFP.

It is part of the ecological planning and decarbonization work of the industry, the objective of which set by the Elysée is to halve its CO10 emissions in 2 years, which warm up temperatures on the planet.

Carbon capture and storage are among the solutions seen as necessary by experts to contain global warming, provided they are not used as a license to continue to pollute.

Mapping carried out by the BRGM and which will be unveiled in June has already made it possible to identify three large potential storage areas: the Paris basin, the Aquitaine basin and the Pyrenean foothills. These projects may relate either to closed wells or to deposits at the end of their life.

According to the ministry, "the potential on existing hydrocarbon concessions at the national level is estimated at around 800 million tonnes of CO2", which would cover "50 years of the CO2 storage needs of French industry" .

Lower the costs

Once the potential sites have been reported by companies, by July 26, a call for projects phase will be open until December in order to assess their potential.

The objective is that “at the beginning of 2025, carbon storage will be tested in 4 or 5 places in France”, indicates the ministry.

At the time of testing, these projects will be able to benefit from a still provisional overall envelope of “around 20 to 30 million euros” within the framework of the France2030 program.

These tests, which will consist of an “ultrasound” of the subsoil, will make it possible to verify that the oil deposits or cavities are properly sealed to store CO2 for millions of years.

Why store in France? “There are other opportunities to do this: Norway, Denmark, are considering storing CO2 on their territory” in deep waters, but these projects have a “high cost”, due to transport and the technology used. , offshore, notes Bercy.

“Storing this CO2 in France will therefore make it possible to divide the cumulative cost of transport and storage by two or three” compared to these Nordic projects, in which France will remain involved, underlines the ministry.

“Tomorrow the competitiveness of a heavy industry will notably be its ability to access CO2 storage,” says Roland Lescure’s office.

Fertilizer manufacturers, cement manufacturers, chemists, many industrialists have expressed their need to capture the CO2 that they cannot eliminate by other means at the end of their manufacturing chains, in order to respect the decarbonization commitments that they took from the Elysée and the government.

“If we want to halve industrial emissions in 10 years, we must resort to carbon capture since there are industrial processes for which there is no alternative without emitting carbon, we must therefore capture and storing carbon (...) is decarbonization of last resort,” the ministry said.

Manufacturers have estimated their capture needs at around 8 million tonnes in 2030, then 16 million by 2040.