Capture without storage is chemistry. Capture with storage is climate action.
Carbon capture removes CO₂ from industrial flue gas or the atmosphere — but the captured CO₂ must go somewhere permanently. Without a credible, safe, and verifiable storage pathway, CCUS projects cannot receive carbon credits, satisfy CBAM documentation requirements, attract DFI financing, or deliver the climate outcomes that justify their capital cost. Storage is not the final detail of a CCUS project — it is the foundation on which every other element depends.
CO₂ can be stored in three principal ways: geological storage in porous rock formations (saline aquifers or depleted reservoirs) at depths where CO₂ is in supercritical phase and trapped by cap rock; mineralisation in reactive basalt formations where CO₂ reacts to form solid carbonate minerals permanently; or utilisation — using CO₂ as a feedstock for products like urea, methanol, or enhanced concrete, where the CO₂ is incorporated into long-lived materials.
India's geological storage endowment is substantial but incompletely characterised. The Geological Survey of India and ONGC have significant subsurface data from oil and gas exploration, coal seam studies, and mineral surveys — but a systematic CO₂ storage atlas covering India's full geological potential has not yet been compiled. NCM is working with GSI and the Ministry of Earth Sciences to develop this atlas, which will form the foundation for India's national CCUS infrastructure planning.
Estimated CO₂ storage potential in India's saline aquifers — orders of magnitude above capture needs
Deccan Traps basalt province — world-class mineralisation storage asset
CO₂ mineralisation completeness in basalt within 2 years — proven at CarbFix, Iceland
Years of geological storage security in properly selected and monitored saline aquifers
Each pathway has different geological requirements, cost profiles, permanence characteristics, and regulatory frameworks. NCM evaluates all three for every client engagement and identifies the optimal storage solution for each project's location, scale, and timeline.
Deep saline aquifers, depleted oil and gas fields, and coal seams beneath India's major industrial zones. The Gondwana sedimentary basin, Cambay Basin, and Krishna-Godavari Basin contain significant onshore storage potential co-located with India's largest emission clusters.
Explore Onshore Storage →Depleted offshore oil and gas reservoirs and deep saline aquifers in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Krishna-Godavari offshore basin. Offshore storage offers high capacity and distance from populated areas — with regulatory frameworks drawing on Norway's North Sea and Australia's OPGGS Act models.
Explore Offshore Storage →CO₂ injected into India's Deccan Traps reacts with basalt minerals to form permanent solid carbonates within 1–2 years — the safest and most permanent storage pathway available. Co-located with Maharashtra and Gujarat's industrial zones. Proven at CarbFix in Iceland.
Explore Basalt Mineralisation →Every nation that has successfully deployed CCUS at scale began with a national CO₂ storage atlas — a systematic geological characterisation of storage capacity, formation quality, and infrastructure co-location potential. Australia's CO₂CRC national storage assessment, Norway's CO₂ Storage Atlas for the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and the UK's North Sea Transition Authority storage atlas all served as the planning foundations for their respective CCUS programmes.
India does not yet have an equivalent document — though the data needed to compile it exists within GSI, ONGC, Oil India, and MECL. NCM is leading the first systematic effort to collate and interpret this data into a CO₂ Storage Atlas for India — covering onshore sedimentary basins, offshore formations, and the Deccan Traps basalt province. The atlas will rank storage formations by estimated capacity, injectivity, seal integrity, and proximity to major emission clusters — giving project developers, financiers, and regulators the geographic foundation for CCUS infrastructure planning.
The atlas development is structured to inform three decisions: where to site CO₂ transport pipelines to minimise cost and maximise storage access; which storage formations should be prioritised for detailed appraisal and pilot injection; and what regulatory framework is required for each storage type and jurisdiction. NCM is collaborating with the CO₂CRC in Australia — which ran Australia's national storage programme — to apply Australian atlas methodology to India's geological context.
NCM draws on the three most advanced national CO₂ storage programmes in the world to inform India's storage appraisal, regulation, and long-term monitoring frameworks.
India currently has no specific CO₂ geological storage legislation. Onshore injection falls under the jurisdiction of the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and state pollution control boards for environmental approval, but there is no dedicated storage exploration permit, injection licence, or post-closure liability framework. This regulatory gap is one of the primary barriers to CCUS project development — lenders will not finance projects without a clear legal framework governing the storage component.
NCM is working with NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, DGH, and MoEFCC to design India's CO₂ storage regulatory framework — drawing directly on Australia's OPGGS Act, Norway's CO₂ Storage Directive, and the UK's Energy Act 2023 as reference models. The framework being developed covers four key elements: exploration and appraisal permits; injection and operation licences; monitoring, verification, and reporting (MVR) obligations; and post-closure long-term stewardship and liability transfer to the state.
The regulatory development timeline is critical — framework legislation typically takes 3–5 years from initiation to operability, and India's first commercial CCUS projects will need storage permits within this timeframe. NCM advocates for an interim permitting pathway — using existing environmental clearance and petroleum concession frameworks with CCUS-specific conditions — to enable first-mover projects to proceed while comprehensive legislation is developed.
Whether you are a government body seeking policy advice, an industrial company facing CBAM exposure, or an investor seeking CCUS project opportunities — our team is ready to engage.