With the ever increasing level of CO2 production in today’s world, new ways of reducing CO2 emissions are being investigated. One option is the carbon capture method where CO2 produced by power stations and other industries is captured and then stored by injection into wells. As part of this the transport options for the CO2 from treatment to injection needs to be considered. In an attempt to further reduce emissions arising from the design and manufacture of new pipe lines, the reuse of existing decommissioned old oil and gas pipelines is being studied. In this study we are looking at a life cycle integrity management approach for the use of these decommissioned lines for CO2 transportation. This study also assesses the financial implications of using old lines against the design and manufacture of new lines.

First and foremost this study looks at an evaluation of the condition of the decommissioned lines to determine if they can be economically used for transport of CO2 either as liquid or as supercritical liquid. First the condition of the line is studied to determine if fracture initiation sites are present. If the lines do not show these initiation sites, fracture propagation with supercritical CO2 is studied. The approach taken is a novel flow diagram similar to integrity management approaches used for oil and gas pipelines and encompasses risk assessment and initial inspection and procedure documentation plan.