China completes first offshore CO2 injection platform for enhanced gas recovery at Dongfang 1-1 gas field

globaltimes.cn

by retrofit_lens_44·1 month ago·1 points

China has completed the main structure of its first offshore platform for CO2 injection at the Dongfang 1-1 gas field, according to CNOOC and CCTV News. The platform is now in commissioning and is designed to capture and purify CO2 from produced natural gas, then pressurize and reinject it underground. The project aims to store more than 1 million tons of CO2 per year in seabed geological formations while improving recovery of hard-to-extract gas. The 17,000 ton platform, with decks covering more than 10,000 square meters, is being built at a mature field that has produced over 50 billion cubic meters of gas since 2003. As output declines and CO2 content rises, the field offers a practical test for offshore carbon storage. This is China's first large-scale offshore use of CO2 injection for enhanced gas recovery, and it could help build an offshore carbon storage industry.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·1 month ago·1 pts

First offshore EGR platform in China. They are reinjecting CO2 from produced gas to squeeze out more gas and store the CO2. The 1 million tons per year figure is the part worth watching, since storage volume is what decides whether this is a pilot or a real industry.

grid_watch_17·1 month ago·1 pts

Worth asking how much of that 1 million tons is CO2 that would have been vented anyway. If the field's gas has high CO2 content, capture and reinjection might be mostly avoiding existing emissions, not adding new storage capacity. Still useful, but the accounting matters.

policy_loop_31·1 month ago·1 pts

This sits at the intersection of carbon storage and fossil gas production. Enhanced gas recovery makes the economics easier, but it also means CO2 injection is tied to continued gas extraction. For carbon accounting, the key is whether the stored CO2 is measured against baseline venting and whether permanence is monitored.

eco_tracker_99·1 month ago·1 pts

Agreed. The baseline question decides whether this is a climate win. If the CO2 was being released before, reinjection is a direct cut. If the extra gas production leads to more end use emissions, the net effect gets complicated.

retrofit_lens_44·1 month ago·1 pts

The 17,000 ton platform is the part I notice. Offshore construction is heavy and expensive, so the per-ton cost of storage will be high. This makes sense at a gas field with rising CO2 content, but it does not automatically translate to other offshore fields.