DDE AT IPTC IN BANGKOK, THAILAND, FEB 28-MAR 3, 2023

DDE partnered with two of its Founding Members, AAPG and CCOP, the latter an intergovernmental organization coordinating geosciences activities in the 10 ASEAN nations and China, East Timor, Japan, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and the Republic of Korea, to organize an “Ask the Expert Session” on “Accelerating CCUS through Machine and Data Learning to support Net Zero Goals”. Susan Nash (AAPG) and Joo Lee Young (CCOP) co-chaired the session with the participation of Mike Stephenson, DDE Director for Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Dr. Nopasit Chaiwanakupt, PTTEP (Thailand) and Dr. Iboru Oyefisayo, SLB as experts.

(see: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/susannash_iptc2023-energyindustry-ccus-activity-7037198608693137409-ExNo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop for photos and reactions to session proceedings).

Dave Leary of the DDE Energy Group was among those who made presentations at an ICTP technical session.

Mike Stephenson taught a CCS course on the 28 February to more than 100 participants from across East and SE Asia and the wider region. This course was for geologists, environmental scientists, and geological regulators, policy makers and investors who are interested in carbon capture and storage. The course covered: the role of CCS within decarbonization as an aspect of earth system science; why CCS is necessary? How CO2 is captured in industrial processes and how it can be used industrially? the factors affecting geological storage; how CO2 stores are monitored for leakage; how CCS will be regulated; how CCS will pay for itself; and the social license for CCS.

The course satisfied a part of the market that is not currently catered for – the wider science, risks, financing, planning, and social acceptability aspects of CCS. These are issues that are as important as the technical issues (for example, reservoir engineering), in the sense that any of these elements can be a showstopper for CCS. The course provided information from an unbiassed, technically well informed, and up to date source. No prior knowledge, beyond normal levels of expertise in applied geoscience, was needed to attend the course. Since the conclusion of this course Mike has been invited and presented this course at events sponsored by other organizations including at the EAGE Annual meeting, Vienna (April 2023), US Dept Interior, New Orleans (Sept 2023), Geological Society of London (Oct 2023), EAGE, GET (Paris) and in Kuala Lumpur (Nov 2023).