Please cite this article in press as: Arts, R.J., et al., The feasibility of CO 2 storage in the depleted P18-4 gas field offshore the Netherlands (the ROAD project). Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.09.010 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model IJGGC-719; No. of Pages 11 International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control xxx (2012) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control j ourna l ho mepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijggc The feasibility of CO 2 storage in the depleted P18-4 gas field offshore the Netherlands (the ROAD project) R.J. Arts a,∗ , V.P. Vandeweijer a , C. Hofstee a , M.P.D. Pluymaekers a , D. Loeve a , A. Kopp b,c , W.J. Plug d a TNO, PO Box 80015, 3508TA Utrecht, The Netherlands b Maasvlakte CCS Project C.V., P.O. Box 133, 3100 AC Schiedam, The Netherlands c E.ON Gas Storage GmbH, Norbertstr. 85, 45131 Essen, Germany d TAQA Energy BV, P.O. Box 11550, 2502 AN The Hague, The Netherlands a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 13 March 2012 Received in revised form 7 September 2012 Accepted 12 September 2012 Available online xxx Keywords: CCS CO2 storage Offshore geological storage Depleted gas field P18 Demonstration project EEPR ROAD project Buntsandstein a b s t r a c t Near the coast of Rotterdam CO 2 storage in the depleted P18-4 gas field is planned to start in 2015 as one of the six selected European demonstration projects under the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR). This project is referred to as the ROAD project. ROAD (a Dutch acronym for Rotterdam Capture and Storage Demonstration project) is a joint project by E.ON Benelux and Electrabel Nederland/GDF SUEZ Group and is financially supported by the European Commission and the Dutch state. A post-combustion carbon capture unit will be retrofitted to EONs’ Maasvlakte Power Plant 3 (MPP3), a new 1100 MWe coal-fired power plant in the port of Rotterdam. The capture unit has a capacity of 250 MWe equivalent and aims to capture 1.1 million tonnes of CO 2 per year. A 20 km long insulated pipeline will be constructed to the existing offshore platform operated by TAQA and an existing well will be worked over and re-used for injection. Natural gas production in the P18-4 field is projected to end just before the start of the CO 2 injection. In this first phase a total storage of around 5 Mt CO 2 is envisaged with an injection timeframe of 5 years. This paper gives a description of the field and of the studies carried out to investigate the suitability of the field for CO 2 storage. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Near the coast of Rotterdam CO 2 storage in the depleted P18- 4 gas field is planned to start in 2015 as one of the six selected European demonstration projects under the European Energy Pro- gramme for Recovery (EEPR). This project is referred to as the ROAD project. ROAD (a Dutch acronym for Rotterdam Capture and Stor- age Demonstration project) is a joint project by E.ON Benelux and Electrabel Nederland/GDF SUEZ Group and is financially supported by the European Commission and the Dutch state. A post-combustion carbon capture unit will be retrofitted to EONs’ Maasvlakte Power Plant 3 (MPP3), a new 1100 MWe coal- fired power plant in the port of Rotterdam. The capture unit has a capacity of 250 MWe equivalent and aims to capture 1.1 million tonnes (Mt) of CO 2 per year. A 20 km long insulated pipeline will be constructed to an existing offshore platform operated by TAQA and an existing well will be worked over and re-used for injec- tion. Natural gas production in the P18-4 field is projected to end just before the start of the CO 2 injection. In this first phase a total ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rob.arts@tno.nl (R.J. Arts). storage of around 5 Mt CO 2 is envisaged with an injection time- frame of 5 years. The gas fields in block P18-A (P18-2, P18-4 and P18-6) are situated at approximately 3500 m depth below sea level. The clastic reservoir rocks are part of the Triassic Main Buntsand- stein Subgroup and the primary seal for the gas fields consists of discomformably overlying siltstones, clay stones, evaporites and dolostones. The P18 gas fields including P18-4 are located in a heavily faulted area and consist mainly of fault bounded compart- ments, which are (at least on production time scales) hydraulically isolated from their surroundings. This paper provides an overview of a feasibility study focused on CO 2 injection in the P18-4 gas field. 2. Geological background 2.1. Depositional setting The Triassic sediments of the reservoir of the P18-4 gas field and its primary seal are of epicontinental character. They can be subdivided into two groups, the Lower Germanic Trias Group and the Upper Germanic Trias Group (Fig. 1). 1750-5836/$ – see front matter © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.09.010