DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONALLY ACCEPTED STANDARD FOR GEOLOGIC STORAGE OF CARBON DIOXIDE UTILIZING ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY (EOR) UNDER THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION (ISO) TECHNICAL COMMITTEE TC-265

The Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration (Storage) (CCUS) marketplace is lacking standardization and therefore the ability to allow CCUS projects to be advance as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects as well as to advance to full scale commercialization. An international effort between the United States and Canada, funded by and the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide (IPAC-CO2 Research Inc.), and managed by CSA Standards, have developed the first internationally recognized Standard for the geologic storage of carbon dioxide Z-741. The Z-741 Standard has been adopted by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and is available to American National Standards Institute (ANSI). As a direct result of Z-741, the International Standards Organization (ISO) has created a technical committee to advance the development of comprehensive standards that address carbon capture, utilization, and storage.

Working Group 6 of ISO TC-265 will focus on standardization efforts associated with low-pressure subsurface oil field operating environments and related CO2 recovery operations, as well as the harmonization of CO2 supplies with EOR operations both on a daily basis and over multi-year operational horizons, among other topics. WG 6 plans to issue an international call for expert participation in its development of standards and other documents related to CO2 EOR. Since the creation of TC-265 the following WGs have been established to support the development of these documents:

WG 1, Capture

WG 2, Transportation

WG 3, Storage

WG 4, Quantification & verification

WG 5, Crosscutting issues

WG 6, CO2-EOR

This paper will address key issues experienced in the standard development process, which is a technical, consensus-based facilitated process. Membership of the Committee is drawn from experts with full GSC project life cycle knowledge and experience – general interest, operators/industry, regulatory, and consultant/service providers, which represent a balance of stakeholder needs.