The overall goals of the Longyearbyen CO2 lab project are:

1. Use the favorable conditions in and around Longyearbyen to develop/test/demonstrate technologies for carbon capture and storage.
2. Establish a monitoring program in Longyearbyen that follows the migration of CO2 through the sub-surface geological structures over time.
3. Turn Longyearbyen into a high profile show case as a community that takes care of its CO2 from the source to the solution.
4. Build high level university courses along the entire CO2 value chain.

To reach these goals, a number of tasks have to be addressed. Among the critical success factors and major milestones that have to be reached during the first part of the project are:

1. Identify a suitable saline aquifer (reservoir) near Longyearbyen (2007-09).
2. Verify the CO2 injectivity and storage abilities of the reservoir (2010-11).
3. Complete an extended reservoir description of the Adventdalen region (2009-10).
4. Complete the design of the Longyearbyen CO2 lab concept with our partners – covering research, monitoring and education (2010-11).
5. Identify capture technologies that can be adapted to the Longyearbyen power plant (2010-11).
6. Complete construction of a CO2 capture plant (2012-15).

The overall time table of developing the Longyearbyen CO2 lab is as follows: