The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has selected two projects to receive $8 million in federal funding to assess offshore geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and technology development in the Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore geologic storage involves capturing CO₂ from a stationary emissions source, transporting the captured CO₂ to an offshore site, and injecting it into a geologic formation deep beneath the seabed, where it remains safely stored and isolated from the ocean water.

The new projects will focus on assembling the knowledge base required for secure, long-term, large-scale CO₂ storage, with or without enhanced hydrocarbon recovery, and assessing technology-development needs (infrastructure, operational, monitoring), which differ from those onshore.

The projects were selected as part of FE’s Carbon Storage Program, which advances the development and validation of technologies that enable safe, cost-effective, and permanent geologic storage of CO₂. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the projects, described below:

• Southeast Regional Carbon Storage Partnership: Offshore Gulf of Mexico—The Southern States Energy Board (Peachtree Corners, GA) will undertake a project with three primary objectives: (1) combine the capabilities and experience of industry, academia, and government to develop and validate key technologies and best practices to ensure safe, long-term, economically viable carbon storage in offshore environments; (2) facilitate the development of technology-focused permitting processes needed by industry and regulators; and (3) provide a comprehensive assessment of the potential to implement offshore CO₂ storage in all state waters and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program planning areas within the Gulf of Mexico.
• Offshore Gulf of Mexico Partnership for Carbon Storage—Resources and Technology Development—The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX) will undertake five activities to support safe, long-term CO₂ storage in offshore geologic settings: (1) offshore storage resources characterization; (2) risk assessment, simulation, and modeling; (3) monitoring, verification, accounting; (4) infrastructure, operations, and permitting assessment; and (5) knowledge dissemination. The project will reach outside the local area and make use of relevant U.S. and global expertise to develop opportunities and reduce deployment barriers. It will thereby increase the potential to implement offshore CO₂ storage in many parts of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program planning areas.

The Office of Fossil Energy funds research and development projects to reduce the risk and cost of advanced fossil energy technologies and further the sustainable use of the Nation’s fossil resources. To learn more about the programs within the Office of Fossil Energy, visit the Office of Fossil Energy website or sign up for FE news announcements.