5th Meeting of the Risk Assessment Network

Publication Overview

The two day workshop was divided into eight sessions, opening with a welcome session and closing with the Outcomes and Recommendations discussion session. Presentations were held over six sessions, covering key topics: Regulatory Requirements, What can Risk Assessment deliver?, Risk Communication, Update from Real Projects, Induced seismicity/Geomechanics, and Long-term Risk Management; with twenty minute presentations on average and a minimum thirty minute facilitated discussion. All the discussion sessions were met with enthusiastic input from all participants, many of which continued into the coffee and lunch breaks, expressing the great interest in the workshop topics, and the importance of such an open forum for advancing knowledge in this topical field.

Publication Summary

Presentations and discussions showed the advancement of regulatory requirements; however some concerns from the technical audience were raised which highlighted the need for researchers to take a proactive in informing regulators to ensure requirements are adequate for emerging needs; and to ensure they apply adaptive approaches to allow for the iterative process of risk assessment which was also highlighted in real project data. Although projects have developed their own effective risk assessment methodology, including a novel approach of FEP analysis presented by Ken Hnottavange-Telleen of Schlumberger (see Session 4.4), the need for benchmarking and consistency was clearly evident; therefore guidelines such as those within the CO₂QUALSTORE report will be useful for ensuring consistency (see Session 2.1). The need for terminology consistency was also expressed in the majority of sessions; expressing the important of the IEAGHG report 2009/TR7 which will meet a highlighted knowledge gap; as was the need to quantify and reanalyse the risk profile, as per the proposed risk curve presented by Kevin Dodds of BP (see Session 4.2). Additionally, the development of CO₂ storage voluntary/bi-national standards by the Canadian Standards Association (see Session 1.3), with the aim of developing such into International standards was seen as a positive step forward; as was the EU RISCS project with an aim to produce a guide for impact appraisal meeting the need for quantifying impacts for environmental impact assessments (see Session 2.5), and the US DOE Best Practices for Public Outreach and Education for Carbon Storage Projects (see Session 3.1). Induced seismicity remains an important topic for discussion, though is limited by a clear scarcity of data.