NETL CO2-Locate database to enhance carbon capture and storage projects

Read the full story from the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Creating a net-zero carbon emissions power sector and economy is an immense endeavor that requires a host of intricate technologies and applications, and the CO₂-Locate database is a centralized platform that allows users to quickly and accurately obtain the data they need. Now published on the Energy Data eXchange^® (EDX), CO₂-Locate is one of several innovative products developed with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Safe and effective geologic carbon capture and storage (CCS) requires data to inform commercial and regulatory decisions. A key element of subsurface storage are wellbores used to obtain information about the prospective subsurface storage reservoir, for use to inject CO₂ into a target reservoir, as well as wells for long-term monitoring to assess and ensure long-term permanence of subsurface stored CO₂. 

Globally, there are over six million wells that have been drilled for research and resource purposes, many reaching thousands of feet into the subsurface. Information and data about these wells pose a significant opportunity to inform and assist the carbon storage commercial and regulatory communities. Information about these wells largely has focused on their form and history in relation to their primary purpose, most of which originated as energy extraction and production related infrastructure.

Some of this primary data is relevant to the CCS community but streamlining and enhancing this information to provide insights and features of most relevance to CCS stakeholders can require advanced data management and analytical steps. CO₂-Locate aims to solve this challenge by providing a national well database through the acquisition and integration of data from class II (oil and gas) wells across the country to help inform class VI (CCS) needs.

Designed to support more efficient and effective CCS site selection, risk analysis and other key stakeholders needs, CO₂-Locate includes the start of an integrated national well dataset, representing open-source wellbore data from disparate state and federal entities.