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Natural Gas Grid

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2022

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Ceisteanna (140)

Denis Naughten

Ceist:

140. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications when he will publish the study on the potential use of the decommissioned Kinsale and Seven Heads gas fields for carbon capture and storage or the storage of natural gas; the conclusions drawn from the study; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14530/22]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The carbon capture and storage (CCS) feasibility study, which is being carried out by Ervia, comprises a desktop study examining technical, economic, safety, regulatory, and environmental aspects of capturing, transporting and storing CO2 emissions. Ervia has provided regular updates to the Steering Group, established to examine the feasibility of CCS in Ireland under the 2019 Climate Action Plan, on the study’s progress. The latest update was in December 2021 when, as requested by the CCS steering group, Ervia submitted a report “Assessment of the Feasibility of CCS for Deployment in Ireland” to assess the feasibility of CCS deployment in Ireland against criteria developed by the steering group. In addition, as an EU Project of Common Interest (PCI), included on the 4th EU PCI List, project promoter, Ervia, successfully applied for €1 million in EU grant funding through the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in May 2020. Using this grant funding, Ervia is carrying out a further detailed study regarding the transport of CO2 in the Cork and Dublin areas. This includes the network transport and conditioning of CO2 for storage in the Kinsale Head gas field or export via ship to CO2 storage facilities in other countries. Funding secured through the successful CEF application will cover approximately half of the study’s anticipated €2 million cost, with the study scheduled to conclude in 2022. In conjunction with this, Ervia is part of a Horizon 2020 project “Realise” which is developing a lower cost technology for capturing CO2 for industrial emitters. This involves testing the CO2 capture technology at Whitegate oil refinery and assessing how it could be integrated into a wider industrial carbon capture cluster.

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