Constraining the data and investment needs for obtaining a carbon dioxide injection permit in the United States

To keep global temperature increases below 2 ̊C, utilization of carbon capture and storage (CCS) must proliferate, but the U.S. has only issued two Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI permits for carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage in saline formations. An impediment to CCS development is uncertainty regarding investment requirements for selecting and characterizing a storage site to obtain an injection permit. A Class VI permit application requires adequate site characterization to ensure that no underground sources of drinking water (USDWs) will be negatively impacted by CO₂ storage. Collection of characterization data involves financial expenditures at different project development investment gates. Here these gates are designated as Feasibility, Site(s) Selection, Detailed Characterization, and Permit Preparation. To estimate the potential investments at each gate, a novel approach was developed and applied to 31 case study storage sites in the Southeast Regional CO₂ Utilization and Storage Acceleration Partnership (SECARB-USA) region. This approach included development of a data needs framework, which consists of data required under Class VI regulations, data for multiphase fluid flow modeling, and data for development of a site monitoring program. Two site evaluation rubrics were derived from this data needs framework to assess the urgency and availability of data at a site. The cost of site characterization is a function of the data density (data availability) and data urgency of a site. These rubrics were used to assign scores to the 42 data needs in the data needs framework, and the subsequent data need scores were referenced to a characterization activity cost index to estimate the costs at each investment gate for each site. Results indicate that the total characterization cost across the case study sites are nearly identical unless high cost characterization activities, such as conducting a 3-D seismic survey or drilling, coring, and testing a characterization well, are unnecessary because the data already exist. Existence of these data lowers project risk as early investment gates can be passed with lower investments. Other trends in the dataset reinforce the value of stacked storage sites for reducing costs and existing well penetrations for providing subsurface data