IEAGHG Monitoring Network Virtual Discussion Panel

Publication Overview

This discussion panel was held by webinar on Wednesday 12th August at 10pm BST, with the theme of engaging regulators, looking at ‘Regulation, Industry and Research – Translating Monitoring Research to Meet Commercial Needs’. The panellists comprised different CO2 storage monitoring stakeholders; operators, regulators and researchers and attendees were asked to submit questions for the panellists to consider prior to the event, of which over 120 were received. 70 participants joined the event, in addition to the 8 panellists involved.The aim of the panel was to discuss the translation of CO2 geological storage monitoring research into regulations and commercial-scale projects. It began with a scene setting presentation and framing questions with in-depth and thoughtful discussion with operator, regulator and research representatives from the US, Australia, and Norway.This discussion panel was an ideal opportunity for all stakeholders actively engaged in CO2 geological storage projects and practical research in monitoring to share and learn about how the information from research and our Monitoring Networks can be used to meet commercial needs.

Publication Summary

This ninety-minute virtual panel discussion dove into detailed conversations between operators, regulators and researchers and gave insights into what is needed from different perspectives to help translate monitoring research into commercial needs. Some of the key messages we heard during the discussion included:

• More should be done to reduce costs and improve the cost efficiency of monitoring techniques,
• Regulators rely on operators to propose a monitoring strategy and techniques suitable for the site,
• Regulators are strong believers in objective-based regulation rather than prescriptive-based regulation,
• Regulators prefer monitoring techniques which are tried and tested, but encourage monitoring R&D on demonstration sites,
• Some of the greatest developments in monitoring over the last ten years are the development of DAS and distributed temperature sensing along with permanent surface seismic sensing, and near-surface attribution monitoring, to improve monitoring efficiency,
• Practices and processes need to be harmonised with international collaboration and shared learning to allow projects to move forward,
• Public perception and acceptance is key and it’s important to inform the public on the reasons as to why we are undertaking CCS, why we are injecting the CO2 for safe storage; the importance of meeting emissions reductions targets and the need for CCS,
• It is crucial to have the capabilities to respond to any stakeholder concerns that may arise and therefore there is a need for contingency monitoring,
• Every site is unique in terms of its geology, project specifics and stakeholders, so monitoring techniques and strategies will be used differently at different sites,
• Projects should be encouraged to use the power of available and applicable standards as part of their dialogue with regulators to move away from time-based to performance-based criteria,
• More practice is needed with failure scenarios.