Southern Adriatic Sea as a Potential Area for CO2 Geological Storage

Abstract

The Southern Adriatic Sea is one of the five prospective areas for CO2 storage being evaluated under the three year (FP7) European SiteChar project dedicated to the characterization of European CO2 storage sites. The potential reservoir for CO2 storage is represented by a carbonate formation, the wackstones and packstones of the Scaglia Formation (Upper Cretaceous-Paleogene). In this paper, we present the geological characterization and the 3D modeling that led to the identification of three sites, named Grazia, Rovesti and Grifone, where the Scaglia Formation, with an average thickness of 50 m, reveals good petrophysical characteristics and is overlain by an up to 1 200 thick caprock. The vicinity of the selected sites to the Enel - Federico II power plant (one of the major Italian CO2 emittor) where a pilot plant for CO2 capture has been already started in April 2010, represents a good opportunity to launch the first Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) pilot project in Italy and to apply this technology at industrial level, strongly contributing at the same time at reducing the national CO2 emissions.