In Salah Gas project

The CO₂ is stored as part of a natural gas production process, operated by BP, Sonatrach and Statoil, in the central Algerian Ahnet-Timimoun basin. Operational since 2004, the gas field holds an estimated 160 billion cubic metres of gas and has an expected operational life of 20 years. After processing in Algeria, the gas is transported hundreds of kilometres to markets in Europe.

Low CO₂ gas production

As the gas contains small amounts of CO₂, it was necessary to separate out the CO₂ to meet purity standards for sale. Rather than vent the CO₂, it was decided to invest $100 million to store it geologically. A Joint Industry Project (JIP) was subsequently set up between the original partners BP and Sonatrach – Algeria’s state oil and gas company – and was later joined by Statoil. Click here to find out more about Gas Production at In Salah .

In total, approximately 17 million tonnes of CO₂ is expected to be stored as part of this process, over a period of 20 years. The carbon footprint of the gas production process is being significantly reduced and importantly the knowledge from this pioneering plant is being shared with a broad community of industry, policy makers and academia.

To further the international application of CCS as a critical climate change technology the In Salah Gas JV has submitted a proposal for including CCS technologies in the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Click here for more details