Subsurface workings: How the underground becomes a frontier

This chapter tracks some aspects of the production of the carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) policy submission document, and draws on fieldwork with consultants at Masdar as well as with representatives from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), Abu Dhabi Co. for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO), the Directorate of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The multiple risks and uncertainties regarding CCS technology and policy, often referred to as merely technical problems that awaited resolving, may be considered metonymical expressions of a much larger project that was at play during the preparations of the modalities and procedures submission. The reservoir engineers and geologists at ADCO claimed an ever-improving knowledge of the subsurface, and evidenced multiple research techniques. Static and dynamic models, in addition to seismic and sonar testing, were crucial in reproducing the underground.