The British government said Monday it was ready to sign off on a North Sea carbon capture and storage program for a Scottish power station.

Royal Dutch Shell is proposing, with strategic assistance from British energy company SEE, to capture the carbon dioxide emitted from an Aberdeen power station and store it in the Goldeneye reservoir in the North Sea.

The British Geological Survey conducted an external review of Shell's Peterhead carbon capture and storage project and found it suitable for storing up to 20 million tons of injected carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

"The plan is to store ten to fifteen million tons of CO2 over a 10- to 15-year period commencing around 2020, but the site is being qualified for 20 million tons of storage to allow for potential extension of the injection period," BGS said in its review. "Storage will utilize the depleted Goldeneye gas condensate field with the Captain Sandstone reservoir as the primary storage container."

A study published last week by the BGS on the Captain Sandstone found storing carbon within a single geological formation could be optimized by injecting CO2 into two points at the same time. In the case study, researchers found they could store more CO2 in less area using the dual-injection method.

The International Energy Agency said in a 2013 study that carbon capture and storage technology, or CCS, is a "necessary addition" to other low-carbon energy technologies meant to drive down global greenhouse gas emissions.

The British government said last year it could be a world leader in commercial CCS development, boasting of close to $1.7 billion in program investments.