Transferring responsibility of CO2 storage sites to the competent authority following site closure

The requirements for pre-qualifying a site for CO2 storage are well developed. Less attention has been paid to rehearsing and preparing for the transfer of responsibility of the storage site from the operator to a governmental authority following closure of the site at the end of the injection period. This is not surprising because the industry is in its infancy and most effort has been focussed on working towards the early stages of the various projects. A procedure for complying to the regulatory requirements for the transport of responsibility in the CCS Directive has been proposed, which consists of a chart with Site Closure Milestones and a traffic light system for treating irregularities in observed behaviour of the storage site, and accompanying criteria. The procedure was successfully tested on the K12-B CO2 injection pilot. Conclusions have been drawn on the basis of several dry runs for reporting the requirements for transfer of responsibility including feedback from operators and regulators.