As reported by Bloomberg Technology, three of the world’s biggest oil companies called on Norway to help maintain funding for carbon capture and storage technology that is stagnating amid concerns about whether it can ever be cost-effective.
At an energy conference in Oslo the CEO’s of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Total SA and Statoil met to discuss a flagship Norwegian project. The project is one in which the companies plan to store CO2 emissions under the North Sea after they have been transported from onshore industrial plants.
The Bloomberg article suggests that the remarks related to this meeting are politically motivated and aimed at the Norwegian parliament, as they are to decide the fate of the project in the coming months. What they are still debating comes back to money and whether Norwegian taxpayers will help support investments of as much as $1.6 billion US in addition to annual running costs of as much as $147 million US. With costs plunging rapidly for rival green technologies such as wind and solar power, the price-tag is raising question marks over whether it can ever be viable worldwide.
With large scale projects like this taking substantial government support and subsidies, will we see the geo political environment push them to the back burner in favor of sexier Tesla type power grids. Obviously, capturing greenhouse gasses and battery/solar power grids are very different in scope, but both have positive impacts on the environment.
Oilconvo News
Will Carbon Recapture Get The Help – or do sexy “alternative energy” projects steal the geo political attention?