Wintershall Q08

The Q08-A field is a depleted Main Buntsandstein (Triassic) and Zechstein (Z3 Carbonate) gas field, located 6 km off the Dutch coast some 15 km north of the port of IJmuiden. Gas production by BP started in 1986 and was ceased in 2004. Besides this field, also the neighbouring Q08-B and Castricum-Zee (CAZ) fields are no longer in production. The CAZ field, which is connected to the platform by a dedicated well, the Q08-A3 well, from the Q08-A platform. This well could be used for CO2 injection or as a monitoring well during injection.

In cooperation with the Rotterdam Climate Initiative (RCI) a feasibility study was performed by TNO in 2008 to investigate CO2 containment in the reservoir, the size for CO2 storage and the re-use of the facilities which comprise: a 12 km pipeline from the Q08-Terminal (located in IJmuiden) to the platform, the platform itself and the three wells for injection and/or monitoring operations. The capacity of the reservoir and facilities could have resulted in the storage of 0.9 Mt CO2/year during 6 years.

Within the CATO-2 programme no dedicated work-package is available for this location and no activities are ongoing with respect to CO2 storage both with the operator and within the CATO-2.

The current operator of the field Wintershall Noordzee BV has decided to permanently abandon the available wells on the platform and review the status of the facilities (platform, pipeline and the onshore processing terminal) for other use and/or abandon the facilities.

No firm plans are available to re-use the production equipment and infrastructure for CO2 injection in the Q08-A field.