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Oil Shale, Vol.25, No.4, 465-484, 2008
INDUSTRIAL CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND POTENTIAL GEOLOGICAL SINKS IN THE BALTIC STATES
Industrial CO(2) emissions and geological storage opportunities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are studied within the framework of EU GEO-CAPACITY and CO2NET EAST projects supported by European Commission through Framework Programme 6. The structure of the energy sector and socio-economic conditions vary considerably between these three countries. A total of 24 large (emitting more than 0.1 million tonnes (Mt) of CO(2)) industrial sources of CO(2) emissions, registered in 2005 in the European Trading Scheme, consists of 11.5 Mt of CO(2) from Estonia, 1.9 Mt from Latvia and 5.6 Mt from Lithuania. The highest amount of CO(2) emission in Estonia is related to the oil shale used as the main fuel for power generation; the two largest Estonian power plants - Estonian and Baltic - produced respectively 7.7 and 2.25 Mt of CO(2) in 2005 and 9.4 and 2.7 Mt of CO(2) in 2007. CO(2) emission from oil shale combustion is significantly higher in comparison with other fossil fuels as energy sources. This is why CO(2) emission per capita in Estonia is about two times higher than the average value in Europe. The three Baltic States are located within the Baltic sedimentary basin, the thickness of which varies front 100 m in Northeast Estonia up to 1900 in ill Southwest Latvia and 2300 in in West Lithuania. The most prospective formation for geological storage of CO(2) is the Cambrian reservoir. 15 large structures have been identified in Latvia with a total capacity exceeding 300 Mt of CO(2), The tightness of structures is evidenced by 40 years of successful operation of the Incukalns Underground Gas Storage. Due to shallow setting, geological conditions in Estonia are unfavourable for CO(2) storage. Therefore all option of transporting CO(2) from Estonia via pipelines