Lukoil finds structures near Volgograd Oil Refinery which may be suitable for pumping CO2

KAZAN. Aug 24 (Interfax) - LUKOIL has found several promising structures for pumping and storing carbon dioxide within a radius of 200 km from the Volgograd Oil Refinery, Natalia Lesina, head of the department at LUKOIL-Engineering LLC, said during the Underground Structures 2023 conference.

For the utilization of carbon dioxide from the enterprise, storage facilities are required that can receive about 200,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, she said.

Promising sites have been located within the license areas of RITEK LLC, as well as in the territories of the unallocated subsoil fund, Lesina's presentation said.

The company considered three types of potentially promising sites: depleted oil and gas fields, sites in water layers, as well as in the inter-salt trough [rock layers occurring in the form of a bowl].

Lesina noted that depleted deposits are good natural traps for gas. Geological modeling has shown that these types of storage areas have a large total volume. However, she stressed that these are facilities where wells were built in the 1950s and 1960s. The possibility of CO2 injection was not considered at the time, so they have no anti-corrosion coating.

The good thing about aquifer sites is that they were originally developed for gas production; wells have been drilled there, and the company has geological and physical information that is useful in helping to identify a potential storage facility.

To clarify the parameters of potential storage facilities, Lukoil needs to conduct a full range of studies for an estimated duration of 18 months.

"This is a very expensive thing, and I would like to receive state support - tax breaks or other mechanisms - for pumping CO2 so that these projects can be implemented. Now, these initiatives, of course, do not make a lot of money, she said in summation.