Annual Report 2004
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Energy resources |
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Energy from the Earth's interior
Heat from the interior of the Earth in the form of geothermal energy is being exploited in many places throughout Europe, and in Denmark a geothermal plant near Thisted has been producing heat for 20 years. The hot water is collected from deep sandstone aquifers in the subsurface. For a number of years GEUS has worked on developing geological models to describe and predict the distribution of geological strata in the subsurface that can be used for geothermal energy. In recent years DONG has worked with GEUS on geological interpretations of borings on Amager, where the erection of a new geothermal plant is underway.This new plant near Copenhagen utilises the energy in the 70-Celsius hot water present 2.7 kilometres below the Danish capital. Experience from the surveys in Copenhagen has spurred new interest in exploiting the deep-lying hot water, and during 2004, DONG and GEUS worked together to interpret seismic data and data from borings in order to build geological models of the subsurface beneath a number of Danish cities. |
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Greenlandic oil licensing round 2004
In October the licensing round for 2004 for four offshore areas in West Greenland closed, and in January 2005, the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum under the Greenland Home Rule issued a new exploration and exploitation licence to the Canadian oil and gas company, EnCana Corporation, and the Danish-Greenlandic Nunaoil A/S. Prior to the licensing round, GEUS in collaboration with the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum worked on developing and marketing new exploration models in Greenland. Many years of research, data collection, and exploration for oil in Greenland have revealed interesting geological structures and attractive source rocks and reservoir rocks in the area. The extensive knowledge and data enabled a change of strategy for the licensing round, and in 2004 there was a higher degree of focus on industry efforts. The oil industry is only interested in large findings and GEUS' work has therefore been about identifying the areas with the largest geological structures and where there is a possibility of oil formation nearby. The work resulted in the identification of four licensing areas, all of which comprise structures in the subsurface larger than 100 km2. After the application date, GEUS participated in the processing of applications and in the negotiations. |
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Research on geological storage of CO2
Emissions of CO2 from burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, may have a number of undesirable effects on the world climate. The international community has voiced a common will to reduce CO2 emissions, as expressed in the Kyoto Protocol. However, with a world that is thirsting for energy, these goals may be difficult to achieve. Storing CO2 in the subsurface could be one way of minimising emissions, and GEUS participated in several EU-funded international research projects in 2004. In an area near Kalundborg on Zealand researchers are examining the geological and technical possibilities for storing CO2 from the Asnæs power plant and an oil refinery in the deep-lying sand beds near the installations. The work is part of project CO2STORE, and it is being conducted in collaboration with the industry partners Energi E2 and Statoil. Furthermore, two new storage projects have been launched. These are project CASTOR, in which GEUS is conducting surveys of the CO2 storage capacity in eight East European countries, and project CO2SINK, that is to construct and run the world's first plant for storage of CO2 from a power plant near Berlin.This project is intended to demonstrate that it is technically possible and safe to store CO2 from conventional power generation in underground storage sites. |
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Time limit for making national claims
In 2004 Denmark, with support from Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, ratified the UN Law of the Sea Convention, or "the constitution for the oceans" as it is also called. The Convention provides e.g. coastal states with an opportunity to make claims to the resources of the subsurface and the seabed beyond the 200- nautical-mile limit. It presupposes, however, that water depths and the geology of the subsurface meet a number of conditions, which are described in Article 76 of the Convention, and Denmark now has 10 years in which to document possible claims. Five areas are at stake. These are: one area in the Arctic Ocean, two areas offshore Northeast Greenland and South Greenland, and two areas northeast and southwest of the Faeroe Islands. I 2004, preliminary surveys were conducted in the form of water-depth measurements from the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, and seismic stations were established in three places on land in North Greenland to document the structure of the earth's crust. Furthermore, seismic surveys and borings in the seabed were conducted southwest of the Faeroe Islands in order to document the geological conditions and possible connection between the Faeroe Islands and the Hatton-Rockall plateau. Finally, in 2004 efforts were made to interpret data from the other three areas in which field research was carried out in 2002 and 2003. Preliminary results show prospects for making claims in these areas. The project is financed by the Ministry of Science,Technology, and Innovation with contributions from the Faroese Home Rule Government, and efforts are a collaboration between GEUS and other institutions from Denmark, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. |
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New knowledge about the energy-rich North Sea chalk
The dominant reservoir rock in the North Sea, from where Denmark gets its oil and gas, is chalk. The Upper Maastrichtian - Danian chalk constitutes an important reservoir in the Danish part of the Central Graben of the North Sea. The methods and the techniques for extracting oil from chalk have become still more sophisticated in the course of the 30 years of production, and today a far greater part of the oil found can be pumped up. The new sophisticated production techniques, which the oil companies have developed, and which include horizontal borings and water injection, make ever more demands on our knowledge about the formation and structure of the chalk. In 2004, GEUS completed a large project which provided a new high-resolution stratigraphical framework for the Upper Maastrichtian - Danian chalk in the Central Graben. The work covered a large number of different geological studies aimed at creating a model for the early oceanographic development in the area and the formation of the characteristic chalk layers. The project has created new and important knowledge about the geological development in the Upper Maastrichtian in the Central Graben, the formation and the sedimentation of the chalk, and new insight into the geological conditions that can create some of the highly porous layers from which oil is pumped up today. The work is being supported financially by the Danish Energy Authority's Energy Research Programme, the EFP-2001, and it marks the end of oil and gas-related research under the EFP programme. |
