The SPE, AAPG & SEG CCUS Conference 2025

From the 3^rd to the 5^th March, Houston welcomed conference goers attending this year’s Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage Conference where the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) united to highlight current CCUS work and address related challenges. The event encompassed a comprehensive technical programme of talks, panels and posters, optional short courses and topical luncheons, student-focussed activities and a pre-event field trip – plenty to keep any CCUS professional fascinated and engaged!

Each day of the conference was opened by keynote speakers. Danny Rice, CEO of Net Power, looked at the need and promise of ultralow-emission dispatchable power and informed attendees about Net Power’s solution using natural gas to capture over 97% of CO2 emissions and working towards delivering the trifecta: clean, reliable and affordable energy. Amanda Raddatz, Director of Carbon Transport & Storage at the US Department of Energy (DoE) looked at innovation through federal investment and recapped the 20 plus years of the DoE’s carbon storage programme which has shown success in validating geological storage since 1997. The final keynote was given by Sarah Saltzer, MD of the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage, who looked at CCS project evolution, highlighting how trends and research initiatives are adapting to the changing project landscape.

The technical presentations and posters presented throughout the week covered ten technical themes: subsurface storage and site selection; subsurface modelling; subsurface risk assessment; infrastructure and well design; EOR, injection and utilisation; subsurface monitoring; financial, economic and regulatory frameworks; ESGs and stakeholder engagement; machine learning and data analytics applications; and case studies. Four parallel streams showcased over 140 technical presentations and over 90 posters looking primarily at US research but with some international perspectives covered too.

Each day panel sessions convened to hear expert viewpoints on the economics of CCS, the development and evolution of carbon capture projects, and I had the pleasure of moderating a panel at the conference on ‘professional opportunities and challenges in the energy transition’. I was joined by four stellar panellists from academia and industry to contemplate the subject: Prof. Ali Tura (Colorado School of Mines), Prof. Camelia Knapp (Oklahoma State University), Divya Shah (Wood) and Fawz Naim (ARI). We looked at the evolving landscape of career opportunities in the sector, challenges faced by young professionals in the industry and provided insights into building a successful career in this area. To briefly summarise, we recognised that there were many exciting reasons to get into the energy transition and CCUS industry, but it can have its challenges. It’s important to develop cross-disciplinary knowledge to be competitive and there may not be standardised career pathways to follows. There certainly is a future for careers in this area, but it can be impacted by governments and policy, and graduates and early career professionals should be proactive, seeking additional skillsets from internships and summer schools (like IEAGHG’s International CCS Summer School). We closed by noting that setbacks can happen, but there are always options and young professionals should remember to be adaptable, flexible and resilient.

I’d like to thank SPE, AAPG & SEG, and the organisers of the 2025 CCUS Conference for inviting me to attend the conference and moderate the final panel, and for facilitating such a fantastic event in Houston showcasing the growth in CCUS over the past year. I look forward to attending a future CCUS Conference!