A key component of the carbon storage licence stewardship process is a risk assessment, which includes an analysis of potential threats to capacity, injectivity and containment of CO2, an assessment of uncertainties in defining the storage system, and the identification of areas for further work and data gathering that will address any potential risks or uncertainties.
Quintessa is experienced in conducting risk assessments following established international methodologies, which align with the most recent guidelines (ISO 27914:2017, ISO 31000:2018) and current legislation (The Energy Act 2008 and The Carbon Dioxide (Licensing etc.) Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/2221), which transpose requirements of EU Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide).
Quintessa participated in a number of EU-funded projects including CO2ReMoVe and RISCS concerning risk assessment methodologies and impact assessment, and prepared one of the first risk assessments to be reviewed by DECC for the White Rose project (now the Endurance CO2 store) on behalf of National Grid Carbon. As a part of the ongoing Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) project, Quintessa provided an independent review of a containment risk assessment report for CO2 storage during Phase 1 of the project. More recently, Quintessa has been supporting Japanese clients on their carbon storage programme and supported the NSTA (formerly, the OGA) in identifying and describing the risks and mitigations which must be considered as part of carbon storage projects on the UKCS, including well integrity risks.