Barendrechters Stand Up to Shell’s Plan to Bury CO2

(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch town of Barendrecht has a message for Royal Dutch Shell Plc: Not under my backyard.

The oil company and the Netherlands government intend to build the first of a new generation of carbon-dioxide storage facilities in two depleted natural-gas fields in Barendrecht. The plan is to capture emissions from a gasification hydrogen plant at Shell’s nearby Pernis refinery and then store the CO2 more than a mile below area homes, preventing the greenhouse gas from reaching the air and harming the environment.

“I don’t think this is the solution to the CO2 problem,” said 53-year-old resident Gerard van Gils. “Why do a project in a residential area and not offshore? The atomic bomb wasn’t tested under Manhattan. To me this means: Not under my backyard.”

Barendrechters like Van Gils say they’re concerned about safety and a possible drop in property values. Governments around the world want energy companies to store CO2 instead of releasing it, to combat global warming. The Netherlands aims to bury 30 million tons of CO2 by 2030 and is spending about 750 million euros ($980 million) in three years on CO2 reduction.

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, involves extracting CO2 from power generation and industrial projects, compressing it and injecting it into depleted oil and gas fields or saline aquifers. The technology would allow prolonged use of coal for electricity generation while reducing greenhouse pollution.

“We are very confident about the safety of the project,” said Margriet Kuijper, CCS project manager at Shell. “Barendrecht is strategically important for Shell and for the Netherlands, as it is paving the way for the bigger projects.”

Environmental Assessment

An independent environmental assessment this month will determine whether the project at Barendrecht, on the outskirts of Rotterdam, addresses all concerns. The city council, which so far has opposed the plan, will deliver a final decision by June 29. That can still be overruled by the Dutch government, which commissioned the project.

In its preliminary finding, the council said public support was “lacking” and asked Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer to halt the venture.

“This project is an experiment, and we don’t think that it is a good idea to have that in a densely populated area,” Simon Zuurbier, alderman of the city council, said in an interview. “It would be better to do it somewhere else.”

Negligible Risks

The Dutch Economic Affairs and Environment Ministries sought proposals for the project. Shell’s plan is to inject as much as 10 million tons of CO2 into the fields, the same amount of the gas created by heating one million modern houses over five years.

The fields are about 1,700 meters (5,577 feet) and 2,700 meters underground. Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, says the risks are negligible and within government standards.

The proximity of the refinery to the ageing gas fields and the existing pipelines make Barendrecht the ideal site for a trial project, The Hague-based Shell said.

Other countries are competing for European Union funding to support similar projects. BP Plc in 2007 scrapped a $1 billion carbon capture and storage power project in Scotland because possible U.K. government money would come too late.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will introduce incentives this week for U.K. businesses to capture carbon dioxide and store it underground, two people familiar with the plans have said.

Read more here