The UK aims to lead in carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) by focusing on the development of four CCS hub and cluster projects across the UK, in areas such as the Humber, Teesside, Merseyside, Grangemouth and Port Talbot.
The industries in these regions, historically dating back to the first industrial revolution, are particularly difficult to decarbonise. Not only will these hubs significantly reduce emissions, by sharing use of CCS infrastructure and transport they will help to reduce the cost and risk to both industry and government.
There is a target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030, equivalent to all emissions of the industrial Humber region today. One key storage site underground in the Southern North Sea is the Bunter sandstone reservoir located around 1000-2000m depth and typically about 200m thick, with seal provided by the Haisborough succession of mudstones and evaporites.
Seismic imaging datasets exist that provide a picture of the overall subsurface framework, and additional data are being collected. Plans for future acquisition include the potential to deploy a system for microseismic monitoring based on borehole and/or seabed sensors, to establish background seismicity and changes over time.
Development of the most technically appropriate and cost-effective options will be a bp activity as well as eventual trial deployment and data acquisition to provide data to the project.
Experience from other bp microseismic monitoring projects, both offshore and onshore and with conventional or DAS sensors in a variety of acquisition configurations, will be applied to optimise the monitoring objectives for sites within the Greater Bunter Sandstone area.