Evaluación de la capacidad de almacenamiento de CO2 de países productores de petróleo en el continente americano

Abstract

Climate change is one of the main environmental challenges today and is linked to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel consumption. Considering this problem, geological CO2 storage is presented as an alternative to mitigate emissions in oil-producing countries. The objective of this project is to estimate the CO2 storage capacity of the American continent, demonstrating its importance in meeting international emission reduction commitments. The research was conducted by compiling CO2 emissions data from oil-producing countries in the Americas, obtained from the Our World in Data platform, which was integrated with technical information on reservoirs and aquifers provided by the International Energy Agency's CCUS project database, as well as scientific articles. The emissions analysis was performed using tools such as Python, while the storage capacity was estimated using the methodology proposed by Bachu. Based on the storage capacity of the reservoirs, three storage clusters were proposed in the North American region, the Colombian Caribbean, and the South Atlantic, with capacities of 753.19, 682.73, 940.03 Mt, respectively. The removal percentages compared to total emissions were low, reflecting the need to complement geological storage with mitigation policies and the expansion of CCUS technologies. Keywords: emissions, geological storage, CCUS, climate change, reservoirs