In May of 2008 there was an incident on the Norwegian Continental Shelf involving the Tordis subsea technology project, following produced water reinjection.
There have been questions concerning the reliability of CO2 Storage in the Utsira formation based on the Tordis Incident.
Statoil launched an internal investigation into the incident. The report concludes that Utsira was not present in the Tordis area.
This is confirmed by new geological surveys in the Tordis area performed by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). In their investigation report the NPD concludes that the Utsira formation is not present.
NPD states that the Tordis incident cannot be used as a general argument against CO2 storage in the Utsira formation.
More details on the NPD report: English Summary:
Statoil agrees with NPD that the Tordis Incident cannot be used as an argument against safe CO2 storage in the Utsira formation. We are confident about the safety of CO2 storage in the Utsira formation.
- Tordis field is located 300 kilometers apart from Sleipner field (the distance from Brussels to Frankfurt)
- The Utsira formation is not in the Tordis area, contrary to the Sleipner area.
- Statoil is closely monitoring the CO2 in the Utsira formation at Sleipner.
- Statoil has conducted repeated seismic, gravimetric and electromagnetic monitoring surveys, over a 12 years period the last ones in summer 2008
- We have found no indications of leakage or crack formation in the cap rocks.
- We are confident that no leakage of CO2 is ongoing or is to be expected from the Sleipner CO2 injection project.