EXPERTS AT SEQUESTRATION CALL IT OFF/NOT VIABLE?

Very curious development. What do they know about injecting CO2 into geologic structures that we need to know? Of course it could be about how dry the oil field is. Either way, peaking oil or failing sequestration, the information behind this announcement would inform public debate.

Statoil, Shell scrap ‘carbon capture’ plans
June 29, 2007 (AFP via Yahoo News)

WHO
Statoil of Norway, Royal Dutch Shell
one of the places Statoil developed expertise in geologic injection -- yet they're calling off the new project. why?

WHAT
Plans to a gas-fired power plant/methanol production facility and capture the CO2 for enhanced oil production injection have been set aside.

WHEN
Announcement June 29.
Original announcement of undertaking was in March 2006, assigning completion to 2012.

WHERE
Announcement made in Oslo.
The plant was to be in the central Norwegian city of Tjeldbergodden. The wells to be injected were in the Draugen and Heidrun offshore fields.

WHY
Shell is a pioneer at injection for enhanced oil recovery. Statoil is a pioneer at geologic sequestration of CO2 (North Sea Sleipner field, Barents Sea Snoehvit field, Algeria’s In Salah field).
The implication of Statoil’s excuse for the project cancellation, that the cost of capturing and injecting the CO2 was greater than the return on the oil produced by injection, raises serious questions about the economic viability of carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS) in general.
BP cancelled a similar proposed project at Peterhead in north-east Scotland.
as oil peaks in any field, it gets harder to push what's left out. apparently this injection project wouldn't produce enough oil to pay for itself. why?

QUOTES
Statoil: “Use of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery on Draugen is not commercially defendable and thus will not make a positive contribution to the value chain…The extra oil volumes that the Draugen licence operator believes to be recoverable are too low to justify the necessary investments in the field…"