Underground CO2 storage reached a record 43.6 million tonnes in 2024, according to the 2026 London Register, which tracks 70 operational projects in 17 countries and has revised earlier totals downward.
Global underground CO2 storage hit a record 43.6 million tonnes in 2024, according to the London Register of Subsurface CO2 Storage. The register has published its 2026 annual report. It now tracks 70 operational projects across 17 countries, with New Zealand and Italy entering for the first time. Cumulative storage since 1996 stands at 421.7 million tonnes, including incomplete 2025 data.
Reported annual storage has more than doubled since 2016, when it stood at 21.0 million tonnes. Imperial College London maintains the register with a consortium of more than 30 experts from academia, industry and government. Members include Stanford, MIT, the Global CCS Institute, IEAGHG and CSIRO. The Royal Academy of Engineering supports the project, and its public database and methodology reports are open to download.
Country totals show where underground CO2 storage happens. The United States has the largest concentration by project count. Its 23 facilities stored 20.2 million tonnes in 2024. Brazil hosts the largest single project. Petrobras’s Santos Basin Pre-Salt oil field stored 14.2 million tonnes, about one-third of the global annual total. China stored 1.7 million tonnes, anchored by the Shengli oilfield and the newly added Daqing Aonan oilfield. Australia also stored 1.7 million tonnes after the register added the Moomba carbon capture and storage project.
The 2026 edition revises earlier figures downward. Cumulative storage through 2023 falls from 351.4 million tonnes to 342.0 million tonnes, a cut of 2.7%. The 2023 annual total drops from 45.2 million tonnes to 41.7 million tonnes. Three changes drive the revisions. The register resolved double counting between company-level and project-level filings. It reinterpreted North Burbank Unit data to account for recycled CO2. It also used revised national inventory figures for Norway’s Sleipner project.
Xiaowei Gao, the register’s executive director, said: “These revisions reflect the latest evidence.” Samuel Krevor, the register’s director, called geological CO2 storage “a global enterprise”. Readers comparing this year’s underground CO2 storage figures with earlier editions should use the revised series.
Accounting questions remain for underground CO2 storage. Storage with oil recovery makes up 82.3% of the cumulative total. In that category, 112.5 million tonnes, equal to 32.4% of it, is recorded simply as injected. The figure may lack adjustment for CO2 that returned to the surface and was reinjected. The authors say the register reports storage net of losses and recycled CO2 where it can. They acknowledge uncertainty for projects with ambiguous or unstated bases. They say upcoming reports will include an analysis of those uncertainties.
US projects report under a federal Environmental Protection Agency regulation on underground injection, which the report describes as rigorous. The basis for accounting is less clear for many projects elsewhere. Krevor said tracing each tonne from injection to permanent storage becomes more important as the technology scales. He said projections for the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target need storage of at least one billion tonnes a year by 2050.
The 2025 data points to further growth in underground CO2 storage. At publication, 29 projects in 12 countries had reported 36.2 million tonnes for the year. The authors say that figure is incomplete and not a global total. Petrobras Santos Basin reported 19.6 million tonnes, up from 14.2 million tonnes in 2024. Seven Chinese projects reported 2.6 million tonnes, and six US projects reported 8.9 million tonnes. Several large US projects with 2024 data have no 2025 records yet, including Shute Creek and the Denver Unit. Norway’s Northern Lights began injection in August 2025.
For industrial emitters, the register offers the most detailed public baseline for underground CO2 storage. Cement, steel and chemicals plans that depend on stored volumes need credible accounting from the start. Policy is adding capacity too, as in the UK’s second storage licensing round and German underground storage legislation. The register’s revisions show that verified volumes set the benchmark for the sector.
