Can carbon dioxide storage site qualification help meet a 2015 deadline?

Abstract

Carbon dioxide capture and geological storage demonstration projects are exposed to a unique and complex set of risks due to high capital investment costs, unpredictable political incentives and novel technology. Deadlines for start-up may be attached to public funding and can create incentives for projects to deviate away from a commercial investment model and accept higher risks early in the project. A project schedule risk analysis is performed for an example carbon dioxide capture and geological storage demonstration project that is designed to represent a real-world project. Front-loading of project costs is examined as a mechanism for increasing the probability of meeting an imposed 2015 deadline for the start of operations. The increased exposure this approach may create to not finding adequate carbon dioxide storage reserves is studied in the context of the storage site qualification process described in the CO2qualstore joint industry guideline.