oa Pathways and Possible Impacts of Accidental CO2 Subsurface-Leak in Sabkha’s Environment, Qatar

In Qatar, the industrial and energy sectors depend mainly on fossil fuels, the main cause of carbon<br>dioxide (CO2) emissions. Though the rate of development is high, the lake of arable land and water<br>resources prevent the development of carbon sinks, forests, and green areas. However, their is no<br>doubt that Qatar share responsibility with the rest of the world for climate change and hence is working<br>to diversify the energy pie and look for more environment-friendly energy sources, and shares<br>responsibility of carbon management. Doha Bank, for example, is planning to launch the Arabian Gulf’s<br>first carbon credits exchange in 2009/ 10 to tap an emerging market for emissions trading. Still Qatar<br>potential for the application of CO2 sequestration technologies is huge knowing that onshore deep<br>saline aquifers of Qatar is as potential large volume carbon dioxide storage sites. Although injection of<br>supercritical CO2 into deep saline aquifers or oil fields is a promising technique for sequestration of<br>large amounts of CO2, but some fraction of the injected CO2 were to leak and reach shallow<br>groundwater aquifers, it would lead to geochemical alterations that could have detrimental effects on<br>the water quality and other adverse impacts. Thus early detection and characterization of potential<br>CO2 leak significantly increases the probability that a timely and efficient solution can be found. The<br>present study presents early results from a joint research between University of Texas and Qatar<br>University on the possible biogeochemical impacts of accidental leak on the shallow ground water and<br>shallow subsurface environment as well as subsurface fate and pathways. For example, in cases of<br>accidental leak, the potential leakage pathways are not necessarily known, but our earlier research<br>indicate that monitoring must be done across a region as large as 100 km2 in the vicinity of a CO2<br>injection project. If a leak were to happen from a Dukhan oil field well (as an example of one such<br>scenario), this would have an impact on the nearby coastal and/or sabkha environment of Doha, Al-<br>Khor, Al-Wakrah, Umm Sa’id, as well as Salwa areas. The potential for stimulation and enrichment of<br>the growth of existing cyanobacterial mats and algal planktonic blooms, some of which may be toxic, is<br>high. The latter effects have further possible consequences on human health as well as on fisheries in<br>Qatar that are described in this research.