CO₂ storage potential in the Nordic region

European research projects mapping and assessing geological storage capacity have indicated a large potential in the Nordic region accounting for 59% of the total mapped European storage capacity of 358 Gt. These studies, however did only include storage capacities from Denmark and Norway and thus failed to review the capacities from Finland, Iceland and Sweden. A new Nordic expertise centre for CCS named NORDICCS will in the coming years attempt to improve the mapping of CO₂ storage sites and storage capacity estimations within the Nordic region. Preliminary results indicate that large sedimentary basins in the Baltic Sea, the Skagerrak area, the North Sea and the area offshore mid-Norway will be able to store large amounts of CO₂ in deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas fields. In addition early research results from Iceland indicate a large potential for in-situ mineralisation of CO₂ in porous basalts, and a minor potential for mineral trapping in ultramafic rocks in Finland. Data from all five Nordic countries underlines results of the previous European projects; the total updated assessed geological storage potential in selected areas is 76 Gt for in saline aquifers, 29 Gt for hydrocarbon fields and between 62-333 Gt for areas with potential for mineral trapping.