Transition: from E&P to CCS, how to deal with existing mining licences and infrastructure

In the beginning of 2009 the Dutch government planned to adopt a long term strategy for CO2 transport and storage in the Netherlands. This strategy should be adopted in 2010. The Minister of Economic Affairs asked Gasunie B. V. (Gasunie) and Energie Beheer Nederland B. V. (EBN) to advise the Minister with respect to this strategy. One of the questions referred to the so-called transition period: from mining activities to carbon storage. What measures are necessary to accommodate this transition period? Depending on the long term strategy several changes in legislation could be necessary. These changes should allow the Minister of Economic Affairs to promote or -if desirable-enforce carbon storages. This article describes two main legal aspects of this transition period: the availability of CO2 storage licences and the possibilities for re-use of existing infrastructure. Currently no depleted reservoirs are available for CCS. For most areas a mining licence has been granted. From the EBN/Gasunie study it follows that a smooth and cost effective transition from production to storage will be enhanced, if the existing mining licence holder can be the future CO2 storage licence holder. In this article it is set out how the existing mining licence holder can be enabled to acquire the CO2 storage licence. Further, it is set out how the government can create free areas in order to facilitate storage by third parties, in case E&P operators are not interested in CO2 storage. Further re-use of infrastructure seems, from a cost perspective, advisable and should be facilitated by the Government. One of the findings of the EBN/Gasunie advice is that in general the preservation of infrastructure is cost efficient if the preservation period is maximized to ten years. At the end of this article it is examined for each sort of infrastructure how preservation is best secured. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.