This paper presents results of potential CCS infrastructures in the West Mediterranean region including trajectories for CO₂ pipelines. The preliminary results are generated with a combination of geographical (GIS) and partial equilibrium optimization modelling (MARKAL/TIMES-COMET). Furthermore, as a result of active stakeholder involvement in the research project, the CCS infrastructures were critically reviewed and obtained insights were used to improve the models and their input parameters. Stakeholderś feedback regarding difficulty in crossing hard rock terrains and the reasonability of trying to replicate the existing natural gas network, had a large impact on the resulting CCS infrastructure.

Transport and storage of CO₂ are the elements in the CCS chain with the lowest cost, but they may well prove to be the elements defining the timeline for CCS development. The EU FP7 COMET project aimed to pave the road towards CCS development in the West Mediterranean (Portugal, Spain and Morocco). This paper provides the main highlights of the work conducted within COMET. The project addressed the temporal and spatial aspects of the development of the energy sector and other industrial activities in relation with CCS and its participation to CO₂ emission reduction taking into account location, capacity and availability of CO₂ sources and of potential CO ₂ storage formations. Special attention was given to a balanced optimization on transport modes, matching the sources and sinks, meeting optimal cost - benefit trade-offs, for a CCS network infrastructure as part of an international cooperation policy.

COMET - Integrated infrastructure for CO₂ transport and storage in the west Mediterranean- is a join research Project cofinanced by the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), which started on January 2010. Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is a CO₂ abatement option that can contribute substantially to the ambitious targets needed for climate stabilization. The significant role foreseen for CCS is based on several conditions, like the availability of a CO₂ transport infrastructure or construction of such an infrastructure within the near future. The need to have a suitable transport infrastructure, its implications over time and its related costs have only more recently attracting the attention and getting priority in the R&D agenda of the European Countries. This is partly because research on CO₂ transport and storage needs to be realized at the localregional level, unlike the technological research on CO₂ capture which is not country dependent. In this context, COMET focuses on assessing CO₂ transport and storage in a geographical area that until now has received little attention: the West Mediterranean area, specifically, the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.