Offshore oil and gas platforms are typically decommissioned and removed at the end of their service lives. ThisSchematic of an offshore platform functioning as a carbon storage site. Source: University of Edinburgh lengthy and costly process might be scrapped in favor of repurposing these rigs as pumping stations for sub-seabed carbon dioxide storage sites. The economic feasibility of such reuse was confirmed in an analysis conducted by University of Edinburgh researchers.

Applying a computer model to data for a depleted hydrocarbon field 15 miles off the northeast coast of Scotland reveals that retrofitting the platform as a pumping station would be 10 times cheaper than the £260 million decommissioning cost. Natural gas and thermal energy extracted from the associated saline formation can be exploited for fuel or electricity production, and mixing saltwater from the oil field with the CO₂ produced by burning the gas facilitates its injection deep underground for permanent safe storage into the porous rock formation.

Reuse of oil and gas infrastructure for CO₂ pumping and storage in the North Sea is expected to have a positive energy balance in addition to offering an economically favorable alternative to decommissioning.