Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the geological storage of carbon dioxide and amending Council Directive 85/337/EEC, European Parliament and Council Directives 2000/60/EC, 2001/80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2006/12/EC, 2008/1/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance

• Published date: 05 June 2009
• Subject Matter: ambiente,medio ambiente,environnement
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 140, 05 giugno 2009,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 140, 05 de junio de 2009,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 140, 05 juin 2009

02009L0031 — EN — 24.12.2018 — 003.001

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►B DIRECTIVE 2009/31/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 on the geological storage of carbon dioxide and amending Council Directive 85/337/EEC, European Parliament and Council Directives 2000/60/EC, 2001/80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2006/12/EC, 2008/1/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 140 5.6.2009, p. 114)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	DIRECTIVE 2011/92/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 13 December 2011	L 26	1	28.1.2012
►M2	DECISION (EU) 2018/853 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 30 May 2018	L 150	155	14.6.2018
►M3	REGULATION (EU) 2018/1999 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 December 2018	L 328	1	21.12.2018

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▼B

DIRECTIVE 2009/31/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 23 April 2009

on the geological storage of carbon dioxide and amending Council Directive 85/337/EEC, European Parliament and Council Directives 2000/60/EC, 2001/80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2006/12/EC, 2008/1/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006

(Text with EEA relevance)

CHAPTER 1

SUBJECT MATTER, SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Article 1

Subject matter and purpose

1. This Directive establishes a legal framework for the environmentally safe geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) to contribute to the fight against climate change.

2. The purpose of environmentally safe geological storage of CO2 is permanent containment of CO2 in such a way as to prevent and, where this is not possible, eliminate as far as possible negative effects and any risk to the environment and human health.

Article 2

Scope and prohibition

1. This Directive shall apply to the geological storage of CO2 in the territory of the Member States, their exclusive economic zones and on their continental shelves within the meaning of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

2. This Directive shall not apply to geological storage of CO2, with a total intended storage below 100 kilotonnes, undertaken for research, development or testing of new products and processes.

3. The storage of CO2 in a storage site with a storage complex extending beyond the area referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be permitted.

4. The storage of CO2 in the water column shall not be permitted.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive the following definitions shall apply:

1. ‘geological storage of CO2’ means injection accompanied by storage of CO2 streams in underground geological formations;

2. ‘water column’ means the vertically continuous mass of water from the surface to the bottom sediments of a water body;

3. ‘storage site’ means a defined volume area within a geological formation used for the geological storage of CO2 and associated surface and injection facilities;

4. ‘geological formation’ means a lithostratigraphical subdivision within which distinct rock layers can be found and mapped;

5. ‘leakage’ means any release of CO2 from the storage complex;

6. ‘storage complex’ means the storage site and surrounding geological domain which can have an effect on overall storage integrity and security; that is, secondary containment formations;

7. ‘hydraulic unit’ means a hydraulically connected pore space where pressure communication can be measured by technical means and which is bordered by flow barriers, such as faults, salt domes, lithological boundaries, or by the wedging out or outcropping of the formation;

8. ‘exploration’ means the assessment of potential storage complexes for the purposes of geologically storing CO2 by means of activities intruding into the subsurface such as drilling to obtain geological information about strata in the potential storage complex and, as appropriate, carrying out injection tests in order to characterise the storage site;

9. ‘exploration permit’ means a written and reasoned decision authorising exploration, and specifying the conditions under which it may take place, issued by the competent authority pursuant to the requirements of this Directive;

10. ‘operator’ means any natural or legal, private or public person who operates or controls the storage site or to whom decisive economic power over the technical functioning of the storage site has been delegated according to national legislation;

11. ‘storage permit’ means a written and reasoned decision or decisions authorising the geological storage of CO2 in a storage site by the operator, and specifying the conditions under which it may take place, issued by the competent authority pursuant to the requirements of this Directive;

12. ‘substantial change’ means any change not provided for in the storage permit, which may have significant effects on the environment or human health;

13. ‘CO2 stream’ means a flow of substances that results from CO2 capture processes;

14. ‘waste’ means the substances defined as waste in Article 1(1)(a) of Directive 2006/12/EC;

15. ‘CO2 plume’ means the dispersing volume of CO2 in the geological formation;

16. ‘migration’ means the movement of CO2 within the storage complex;

17. ‘significant irregularity’ means any irregularity in the injection or storage operations or in the condition of the storage complex itself, which implies the risk of a leakage or risk to the environment or human health;

18. ‘significant risk’ means a combination of a probability of occurrence of damage and a magnitude of damage that cannot be disregarded without calling into question the purpose of this Directive for the storage site concerned;

19. ‘corrective measures’ means any measures taken to correct significant irregularities or to close leakages in order to prevent or stop the release of CO2 from the storage complex;

20. ‘closure’ of a storage site means the definitive cessation of CO2 injection into that storage site;

21. ‘post-closure’ means the period after the closure of a storage site, including the period after the transfer of responsibility to the competent authority;

22. ‘transport network’ means the network of pipelines, including associated booster stations, for the transport of CO2 to the storage site.

CHAPTER 2

SELECTION OF STORAGE SITES AND EXPLORATION PERMITS

Article 4

Selection of storage sites

1. Member States shall retain the right to determine the areas from which storage sites may be selected pursuant to the requirements of this Directive. This includes the right of Member States not to allow for any storage in parts or in the whole of their territory.

2. Member States which intend to allow geological storage of CO2 in their territory shall undertake an assessment of the storage capacity available in parts or in the whole of their territory, including by allowing exploration pursuant to Article 5. The Commission may organise an exchange of information and best practices between those Member States, in the context of the exchange of information provided for in Article 27.

3. The suitability of a geological formation for use as a storage site shall be determined through a characterisation and assessment of the potential storage complex and surrounding area pursuant to the criteria specified in Annex I.

4. A geological formation shall only be selected as a storage site, if under the proposed conditions of use there is no significant risk of leakage, and if no significant environmental or health risks exist.

Article 5

Exploration permits

1. Where Member States determine that exploration is required to generate the information necessary for selection of storage sites pursuant to Article 4, they shall ensure that no such exploration takes place without an exploration permit.

Where appropriate, monitoring of injection tests may be included in the exploration permit.

2. Member States shall ensure that the procedures for the granting of exploration permits are open to all entities possessing the necessary capacities and that the permits are granted or refused on the basis of objective, published and non-discriminatory criteria.

3. The duration of a permit shall not exceed the period necessary to carry out the exploration for which it is granted. However, the Member States may extend the validity of the permit where the stipulated duration is insufficient to complete the exploration concerned and where the exploration has been performed in accordance with the permit. Exploration permits shall be granted in respect of a limited volume area.

4. The holder of an exploration permit shall have the sole right to explore the potential CO2 storage complex. Member States shall ensure that no conflicting uses of the complex are permitted during the period of validity of the permit.

CHAPTER 3

STORAGE PERMITS

Article 6

Storage permits

1. Member States shall ensure that no storage site is operated without a storage permit, that there shall be only one operator for each storage site, and that no conflicting uses are permitted on the site.

2. Member States shall ensure that the procedures for the granting of storage permits are open to all entities possessing the necessary capacities and that the permits are granted on the basis of objective, published and transparent criteria.

3. Without prejudice to the requirements of this Directive, priority for the granting of a storage permit for a particular site...