Safely repurposing existing pipelineinfrastructure for CO2 transport – Key issues to be addressed
In the context of carbon capture and storage (CCS) or utilization (CCUS), offshore pipelines are foreseen to play an important role for the transport of large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) from sources sinks/consumers. There is currently a strong interest within the industry to explore the possibility for repurposing of existing pipeline infrastructure to leverage on existing CAPEX investments. Even though this may seem attractive from a cost perspective, the technical, safety and financial risks need to be acknowledged and addressed accordingly. Several decades of industry experience exists for onshore CO2 pipelines, mainly for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), however, the experience is rather limited for offshore pipelines. Change of product will per applicable pipeline design codes require a re-qualification to ensure that the new premises for change in operation is properly assessed and confirmed acceptable with regards to pipeline safety, operability, and transport capacity. This paper addresses key issues with main focus on pipeline structural integrity.