Press releases

Geological storage of CO2 - Founding of the Geogreen company by three major players in the field

30 August 2007

IFP, Géostock and BRGM are announcing the creation of a company, Geogreen, specializing in engineering services for the transport and geological storage of CO₂. These three leading French players are pooling their skills in order to position the company in the world market for the geological storage of CO₂ and thereby contribute to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

IFP holds a 40% stake in the new company, Géostock another 40%, and BRGM 20%. The technical activities are perfectly complementary between shareholders. This enable Geogreen to provide the industries concerned with a very broad range of services, covering the whole chain from the transport of CO₂ to its geological storage, from upstream expertise to engineering and project development. In the longer term, Geogreen will offer injection site inspection and maintenance services, and monitoring services in connection with closures of storage sites.

Gilles Munier, Chief Executive Officer, Pierre Le Thiez, Executive Vice-President, and Carlos Gomez-Montalvo, Vice-President Sales & Marketing, will lead the new company.

Poorly developed only a decade ago, CO₂ technologies are today recognized as a way to make a significant dent in emissions of greenhouse gases. Industries that emit CO₂ are taking a close look at mass geological storage solutions, and pilot CO₂ capture and injection facilities are mushrooming all over the world.

Aware of the environmental stakes for future generations, and the importance of taking steps towards sustainable development, Geogreen is firmly committed to a public interest approach. Its leaders are determined to apply a stringent health, safety and environmental protection policy and to work in complete transparency with all players concerned by its business.

More information >> www.geogreen.fr

As an international research and training center, IFP is developing the transport energies of the 21st century. The capture and storage of CO2 are among its strategic priorities.
As a European leader in research into the capture, storage and transport of CO2, IFP is strongly committed to new innovative technologies for the whole sector. IFP bases its work in particular on certain cutting-edge technologies used in the oil and gas sector. These technologies can be applied to the capture and storage of CO2, with a view to controlling the injection of the CO2 in underground reservoirs and tracking the evolution of its storage.
IFP is involved, along with industry partners and other research organizations, in many French and European projects. In particular, IFP is leading the European Castor project, involving 30 partners from 11 countries. Several large-scale experiments on capture and storage are being conducted under this program.

Géostock, is an international engineering group and a leader in the underground storage of hydrocarbons, in particular natural gas. It is active across the world, in particular through its subsidiaries in France, Germany and the United States.
Géostock boasts comprehensive expertise in underground storage techniques (porous media, salt cavities, mine cavities) and has built up more than 40 years of know-how in the design, construction supervision and operation of storage facilities both in France and abroad.
Géostock is actively involved in various R&D programs relating to CO2 storage and contributes through various bodies to furthering discussions on technical and regulatory issues. www.geostockgroup.com

BRGM, France's leading public institution the Earth sciences field to manage the resources and risks of the soil and the subsoil, is active in scientific research, support for public policy, and international co-operation.
As early as 1993, BRGM took part in the first European research project, Joule, making it one of the pioneers in the storage of CO2 in geological formations. It has since been involved in many other international, European and French projects.
BRGM's work focuses on the selection and characterization of storage sites, injectivity in reservoirs, overburden and well integrity, predictive modeling of the near-term future of CO2 and reservoir behavior, geophysical, geochemical and biogeochemical monitoring methods, and safety analysis (impact and risk control). While more particularly involved in studies concerning storage in deep aquifers, it is also developing analytical techniques suited to the characterization of the adsorption capacities of coals.
BRGM is involved in the design of a semi-industrial CO2 capture and storage pilot facility in France, in a deep aquifer, that would contribute to reaching the objectives of the European Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants Technological Platform (ETP ZEP). www.brgm.fr