Riyadh (November 22, 2011) – The King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) unveiled a new book on Carbon Capture and Storage at their Energy Dialogue Event in Saudi Arabia. Geogreen’s staff served as the main contributors to the book, which is entitled Carbon Capture and Storage: Technologies, Policies, Economics, and Implementation Strategies. Roughly 500 copies were given out to the attendees of the Energy Dialogue and the book is now available for purchase online from CRC Press. In brief, the book describes the key economic, political, and environmental drivers for CCS, its key global stakeholders, the technical considerations required when deploying the three components needed to capture, transport, and store CO2 from industrial sources, as well as some key economic, regulatory, and environmental considerations for deploying the technology at a global scale and some key principles for a sustainable way forward with CCS development. 

The book was reviewed and received strong compliments from Robert Socolow of Princeton University, Ian Duncan and Jean-Philippe Nicot of the University of Austin, John Panek of the US Department of Energy, and François Kalaydjian from IFP Energies nouvelles. Geogreen wishes to thank KAPSARC for the opportunity that was afforded to the company in being able to participate in the book’s creation, and to thank as well the individual authors, reviewers, editors, and contributors who all made the book’s publication possible. 

Riyadh (November 20-22, 2001) - Gilles Munier and Pierre le Thiez participated in the KAPSARC 2011 Energy Dialogue held in Saudi Arabia. Dedicated to the key issues of reliable and sustainable energy, the Dialogue was chaired by His Excellency Ali Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Gilles Munier, GEOGREEN CEO participated to a panel chaired by Ernest Moniz, MIT, discussing about “Carbon capture and storage: Value creation or cost?”.  During his presentation Gilles Munier insisted on the CCS costs reduction drivers and business model issues. He concluded with recommendations for achieving 2020 and beyond IEA objectives in terms of CCS projects needed to achieve a deep reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. 

Discussions involved key personalities such as H.E. Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Finance of of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Abdullanel-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC, Khalid al-Falih, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil, Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director of the IEA, Olivier Appert, Chairman and CEO of IFOPO Energies nouvelles. 

Paris (October 19, 2011) – The French Minister of Industry, Eric Besson, announced today that the government has awarded the research permit submitted by ArcelorMittal which is aimed at acquiring locally new dataset in order to finalize the characterization (as per European directive 2009/31/EC) of the storage part of the ULCOS-BF CCS demo project. Geogreen holds a minority share in the company ArcelorMittal GeoLorraine, which is the research permit holder, and as such was directly involved with the filing of the permit application. The ULCOS-BF CCS project for low carbon steel in Europe has also filed an application for NER-300 funding from the European Commission and is still awaiting the final decision. 

From Arthemia: "“This project represents a first world in its field”, said the Ministry in a news release. It plans to launch next to a gas and CO2 capture recycling demonstrator installed on the furnace of the steel site. This project ArcelorMittal had filed April 15, 2010 an application for an exclusive licence of research of natural subsurface formations to the geological storage of CO2 in industrial destination for a period of five years. “Mining, code this application was the subject of a publication in the Official Journal of the French Republic and of a development in competition”, said the Ministry. “The licence at the end of this process gives ArcelorMittal exclusive access within the requested, to a better understanding of the basement to assess its ability to store permanent carbon dioxide and safely,” he said. Some work, and in particular the testing of injection of carbon dioxide, remain subject to the granting of additional leave, which means including the realization of an impact study and the Organization of a public inquiry.

The licence opens “of the prospects for the future” for the Florange site, considers Mr. Besson whereas the decision for an indefinite period of the two blast by the leadership of ArcelorMittal, raised questions about the continuation of the project ULCOS-BF.“This permit strengthens the chances of the project in the current European tender (“NER 300″)I visit before end of November in Brussels to meet European Commissioners responsible for this folder“, the Minister said. An envelope of EUR 150 million has been reserved by the Government for this project under the investment for the future, he added. The European selection decision is expected in 2012."

Paris (October 12, 2011) Gilles Munier, Geogreen's CEO, and Yann Le Gallo, the operations manager, attended this year's JAH meeting in Paris on developments within the hydrocarbon industrial sector. Munier presided over the session on CCS and CO2 and Le Gallo presented the VASCO project within the context of the session. The VASCO project aims to manage the CO2 from across a large industrial basin in the Greater Marseille area.

The VASCO project targets four CO2 valorization strategies: CO2-EOR around the Mediterranean sea, indsutrial use, bioremeidation via micro-algae cultivation, and lastly the geological storage of any excess CO2. This project is to be lead by Geogreen and Pôle Risques in collaboration with BRGM, IFREMER, IFPEN, GDF-SUEZ, and Air Liquide. 

Marseille (October 11, 2011) Gilles Munier and Yann Le Gallo, respectively Geogreen's CEO and operations manager, attended a symposium on carbon capture, storage, and valorization co-organized by the French Energy and Environment Agency (ADEME) along with ANR and Pôle Risques. There Le Gallo discussed the results from the completed MANAUS project (Méthodologie d’ANAlyse Unifiée et de gestion des risques liés au Stockage géologique de CO2), and Munier presented the new VASCO (Valorization and Storage of CO2) project, which aims to manage the CO2 emissions from a large industrial basin in the Greater Marseille area. 

From the organizers: The aim of the conference was to discover new means to harmonize the operation of local industrial SMEs - and the vital employment opportunities they provide the Marseille region - with the region's equally important sustainable development targets: placing on the same scale ​​the economic, social, and environmental factors so as to build a truly integrated solution. The conference provides a significant contribution to the ongoing dialogue from actors involved along the carbon value chain, by helping to identify and maximize the potential added value for French SMEs while taking into account the new regulatory concerns. As such, this meeting was an exceptional opportunity for SMEs to present their initiatives, their skills, expectations and needs.

Rueil-Malmaison (June 27, 2011) Geogreen continues to strengthens its ties with IFPEN Training by delivering lectures and courses to industrial actors implicated within global CCS development strategies. Over the 2010-2011 academic year, Geogreen delivered four separate training courses on CCS including one given jointly with ENEA Consulting. 

Geogreen has formed an agreement with IFP Training and with ENEA Consulting to deliver CCS training courses for industrial stakeholders. These courses can be given either at the IFP Training Center in Rueil-Malmaison France, on-site at the company, or at a location of the clients' choosing. The CCS course as it is currently structured can be part of a large program (e.g. the Short MBA on Energy Management offered by IFP Training) or as a stand-alone training. To date Geogreen has performed the following trainings: 

• One day on site training for GE (General Electric) in Italy on “CO2 Capture, Transport and Storage" (Nov 2010)
• One day training for Petrobras at the IFP Training Center on “GHG effects, Energy needs, & tools for mitigation (CCS)” (March, 2011)
• Two day training for an “Introduction to CCS” performed together with Enea Consulting within the IFP Training Economics and Management Training Course Catalogue for 2011 (June, 2011)
• Two day training on “GHG effects, energy needs, tools for mitigation (CCS)” for an international group of engineers (from France, Nigeria, Kazakshtan) with the IFP Training's “Short MBA on Energy Management “ Program (September, 2011) 
  

Oslo (September 13, 2011) - Yann Le Gallo, Geogreen's Operations Manager, attended a carbon capture and storage (CCS) risk management seminar at the DNV headquarters in Oslo. "The seminar was attended by experts in CO2 capture, transport, and storage technologies and featured risk specialists from other industries who provided insight on how CCS can benefit from various risk management techniques."

Rueil-Malmaison (August, 2011) - Geogreen is happy to announce that the European Commission has selected the ULTimateCO2 project for funding under its FP7 R&D program. The aim of this collaborative project, led by BRGM, is to investigate specific processes that may affect the long-term fate of geologically stored CO2 and yield improved and validated tools for predicting long-term storage site performance. Geogreen involvement will mainly focus on integration of the results to model the long-term behavior CO2 storage sites (from the European CCS projects that are ultimately selected for NER300 funding) at both the reservoir and sedimentary basin scale, in terms of the storage projects' overall efficiency and security. 

Project Concept: Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) offers the possibility of reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions by confining carbon dioxide (CO2) permanently in geological formations deep underground. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has recently estimated that CCS could contribute as much as 20% of the total reduction in emissions needed to keep global warming below 2°C. The recent European Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan aims to support research programmes and industrial pilots in order to accelerate the deployment of such low carbon technologies. However, although the SET Plan recognises that the technical feasibility of CCS has been proven with the development of small-scale pilot sites that draw on oil and gas industry experience, the EC Directive on the Geological Storage of CO2 requires operators to demonstrate that the long-term fate of the CO2 in the reservoir will ensure permanent containment. Other stakeholders, notably the general public and their representatives, seek answers to questions on the behaviour and impact of the injected CO2: “What will happen to the CO2?”, “Will it leak from the chosen reservoir?”, “Will it stay underground?”, “For how long?”. Such questions, at whatever level, can only be answered convincingly through a better understanding of a chain of complex physical and chemical processes. This requires a significant increase in scientific knowledge beyond the state-of-the-art since, unlike other domains, we do not currently have experience to draw on for this new technology. The specific targeted research proposed in ULTimateCO2 is intended to fill this knowledge gap.

Participants: BRGM (France - Coordinator), BGR (Germany), BGS (UK), CO2SENSE (UK), EIFER (Germany), Geogreen (France), Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (Denmark), IFPEN (France), The Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (Italy), Phimeca (France), TNO (Netherlands), Utrecht University (Netherlands)

Rio de Janeiro (July 11, 2011) - Jonathan Royer-Adnot, who heads Geogreen's business development in South America, attended the World Energy Council's  workshop at the Windsor Atlântica Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, which delved into the convergence of and outlook for deep offshore petroleum production, carbon capture and storage, and clean energy needs in Brazil. 

From Petrobras Magazine: "We and the Brazilian Committee of the World Energy Council promoted an international workshop on the role of fossil fuels in the low-carbon economy. Held in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, July 07, the event brought together over 100 experts and officials from Brazil and several countries, such as the United States, Italy, Norway, France and Argentina.

Beatriz Espinosa, Petrobras' general manager for Energy Efficiency and Air Emissions, spoke about Company initiatives to mitigate climate change and presented its new targets to reduce its emissions intensity. "Petrobras is expected to double its production by 2020. With that in mind, the Company has set voluntary goals to reduce its emissions growth curve, and, in 2010, committed to maximizing its energy efficiency and decreasing the emissions intensity of its operations."

For 2015, our target is to reduce energy intensity at its refining and thermoelectric plant operations by 10% and 5%, respectively; to decrease natural gas flaring at its exploration and production operations by 65%; and to lower greenhouse gas emissions at its exploration and production, refining, and thermal power plant operations by 15%, 8% and 5%, respectively.

According to Spinoza, by taking on this commitment, we are in the forefront of the industry. In order to achieve these goals, we will invest $1.2 billion in energy efficiency projects, including in research and development in this area.

Our carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCS) projects were also presented during the event. Exploration & Production (Pre-salt) executive Alberto Sampaio spoke about the use of CCS technologies in the development of the Santos Basin's pre-salt cluster. Paulo Rocha, the coordinator of Petrobras' Pro-CO2 research program, discussed the technological challenges the oil and gas industry will face in order to adjust to the low-carbon economy. Altino Ventura, the Mines and Energy Ministry's secretary for Energy Planning and Development, and the US Department of Energy's secretary for fossil fuels, Charles McConnell, also attended the event.

Established in 1923, the World Energy Council is headquartered in London and comprises approximately 100 affiliated countries. Its main mission is to promote sustainable energy development."