CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE IN THE ARCTIC: THE POTENTIAL AND ECONOMICS OF PROJECTS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE MURMANSK REGION)

Abstract

The relevance of the topic. The Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is an important industrial region for the country's economy. Today the industrial potential of the region has not been fully developed, and plans for its development are associated with growing environmental risks. One of the solutions aimed at reducing the negative impact of industrial enterprises on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a complex of carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) with the possibility of CO2 storage in oil and gas fields. Since the Arctic shelf has dozens of deposits, CCS projects can potentially be implemented with their inclusion in the technological chain. Goal. Substantiation of the organizational and economic model of the implementation and economic assessment of the CCS project in the Arctic territories on the example of the Murmansk region. Methodology. The main research methods were content analysis, as well as general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, decomposition and grouping. The discounted cash flow method was used to assess the economic efficiency of the proposed CCS project. When estimating capital and operating costs for the project, elements of the analogy method based on open sources of information, as well as closed data from a Russian oil and gas company, were used. In order to analyze the risks of the project, the sensitivity analysis method was applied. Results and conclusions. The theoretical foundations of organizational and economic models and forms of CCS technological chains are analyzed. An integrated assessment of GHG emissions from key industrial companies in the Murmansk region was carried out, as well as the possibilities of CO2 storage on the Arctic shelf were analyzed. A model of the organization of the CCS technological chain in the Murmansk region with an economic justification for the project of transportation and long-term storage of CO2 in oil and gas fields is proposed and substantiated. The project pays off when setting a certain amount of payment for the transportation and storage of CO2, and also seems to be the most sensitive to changes in its value. It is proved that the implementation of such initiatives requires a developed institutional environment in terms of appropriate regulatory and incentive mechanisms. The scope of application. The results of the study can be applied both at the level of private business and at the state level when making decisions on the implementation of various models and organizational forms of CCS, including in the Russian Arctic.