Background to the Study

The 13th meeting of IEAGHG’s Monitoring Network was this year combined with the Environmental Research Network, to facilitate wider topic broaching and encourage broader discussions.  This combined networks meeting was held from 20th – 22nd August 2019 at the University of Calgary, Canada.  The two day meeting was preceded by a field trip to the Containment and Monitoring Institute (CaMI) field research station site visit.  It was followed by a one day workshop on faults and their significance for  CO₂ storage (report number 2020-03).

Key Messages

• The meeting was designed to cover the following themes: developments in sensing ; lessons from managing field projects; uncertainty in quantification; monitoring for EOR compared with deep saline formations; fall-back plans; new case studies with real data; environmental impacts of monitoring and stakeholder engagement; up-well leakage; and monitoring post-injection for closure.
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• Of particular note were the first results from the STEMM-CCS project’s controlled release experiment in the North Sea. This showed that a range of monitoring techniques were able to detect the small-scale release of CO₂, including small rapid changes in pH, and were able to quantify the amounts of CO₂ reaching the water column. This ability to now potentially quantify CO₂ seepage offshore was an impressive achievement recognised by the meeting. This experiment again showed that only a small percentage of the CO₂ escapes the sediment to the water column, much of it is caught by dissolution within the sediment, an important characteristic for seepage scenario planning.
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• Two group exercises were undertaken, many thanks to Sue Hovorka. One was to consider fall-back plans in the event of unexpected challenges in operational situations, and one to consider long-term post-injection monitoring. Both proved stimulating and thought-provoking for participants. Also in terms of post-injection monitoring, the Shenhua project in China was interesting to see the requirements there. The Tomakomai project again provided useful experiences in relation to project- and stakeholder-management in the event of natural earthquakes which they have experienced.
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• As usual at IEAGHG Network meetings, key conclusions and messages were drawn, and recommendations were made. One message was an appreciation of the need for sites such as the CMC Research Institute’s Field Research Station (visited during the meeting) to allow R&D and testing of new monitoring techniques on a real CO₂ injection within the freedom of a research environment. The concluding high-level messages noted the great developments in marine and terrestrial sensing, particularly with quantification. Also the participants recognised the challenges arising from some regulations on requiring prescriptive long-term post-injection monitoring, which, however, should be risk-based and achievable with reliable tools, and noting that the objectives may be quite limited.

This report is available to download.