Background

From the 27th to 30th August CO2CRC hosted this meeting of two of IEAGHG’s Networks, the 8th meeting of the Monitoring Network and the 4th meeting of the Environmental Research Network. The theme of the meeting was ‘Realistic monitoring of CO2 migration – from the reservoir to the surface’, and was attended by 80 delegates from 12 countries. The latest developments and research were presented in sessions covering the regulatory environment, monitoring migration from the reservoir, migration of fluids through the overburden, detection of leakage into shallow groundwater, terrestrial detection monitoring and environmental impacts, marine detection monitoring and environmental impacts, and the complexity of the natural system and implications for quantification.

Overall Conclusions

The overall conclusions of the meeting were that offshore monitoring is looking promising, that near-surface monitoring has advanced significantly, recognition of the value of controlled release projects, that there is better understanding of environmental impacts and their use for monitoring, acknowledgement of the complexity of natural variability and the implications for monitoring, and that regulatory support is very important for research pilot and demonstration projects.