Creating core CCS messages: Focus Group Testing and Peer Review of Questions and Answers from the IEAGHG Weyburn-midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project

Abstract The publication in 2012 of Best Practices for Validating CO 2 Geological Storage: Observations and Guidance from the IEAGHG Weyburn-Midale CO 2 Monitoring and Storage Project marked the culmination of 12 years of research at the Weyburn and Midale oilfields in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. From 2000 to 2012, close to 23 million tonnes of carbon dioxide were injected into depleted oil reservoirs during enhanced oil recovery operations (EOR); the measurement/monitoring research conducted with those EOR operations demonstrated that storage in deep geological formations is a safe and effective means of reducing GHG emissions. The wealth of results accumulated and disseminated during the Weyburn-Midale Project (WMP) has been important for CCUS and CCS project managers and researchers alike, but serious public concerns continue worldwide related to the safety of CO 2 underground storage. In late 2012, the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute approached the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (managers of the WMP) to produce a “core messages” booklet that would offer answers to questions that persistently arise from the general public about carbon capture and storage, by incorporating the scientific information garnered over the life of the WMP. The booklet, What Happens When CO 2 is Stored Underground: QA identification of additional questions and answers using WMP results; community focus group analyses of a completed draft of the booklet; a peer review of the booklet and the focus group responses by CCS communications experts; and, finally, a redrafted final publication.