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The ultimate goal of SENSE is to offer storage site operators a cost-effective monitoring option that can form part of an effective site assurance/monitoring program and feed into workflows for an early alert system to detect unexpected changes in the subsurface.The SENSE project has four demonstration sites for monitoring technologies and developing concepts and procedures. These sites are both onshore and offshore. The onshore sites include In Salah (Algeria) and Hotfield Moors (UK). For these sites, the project will use satellite data to explore the response of the surface to pressure changes in the subsurface. Algorithms for automatic satellite data processing to facilitate quick access to ground elevation data for site operators are under development at the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI). The offshore sites include Bay of Mecklenburg (Germany) and the Gulf of Mexico (USA). In addition, the SENSE partners have requested access to data from the Troll Gas Field, the North Sea, to study its subsidence due to production-related pressure reduction. The Troll Gas Field is located next to the storage site considered for the Norwegian Long Ship project, and its data will provide a good understanding of the geomechanics of the area.In this paper, we present the work on the In Salah and the Bay of Mecklenburg sites. New InSAR data from the In Salah are used to evaluate the ground movement during the post-injection period and thus to assess the behaviour of the storage site after completion of the injection phase. Bay of Mecklenburg is an offshore site for field experiment to inject a gas underground, build-up pressure, uplift the seafloor and measure the resulted uplift. The first field campaign at the Bay of Mecklenburg was completed in late 2019. It provided both gravity cores from the seabed and geophysical data acquisition for characterizing the shallow subsurface layers. The gravity cores were characterized for physical and mechanical properties. The material properties were used for simulating injection and response of the seafloor to induced pressure. Geomechanical 2D and 3D simulations show that the reservoir may sustain very low overpressure before it fails. Hence, this magnitude of overpressure may create a seafloor uplift of about a few millimeters to a couple of centimeters. The monitoring techniques are therefore being designed to capture uplift in this order of magnitude during the injection operation.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) could significantly contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reaching international climate goals. In this process, CO2 is captured and injected into geological formations for permanent storage. The injected plume and its migration within the reservoir is carefully monitored, using geophysical methods. While it is considered unlikely that the injected CO2 should escape the reservoir and reach the marine environment, marine monitoring is required to verify that there are no indications of leakage, and to detect and quantify leakage if it should occur. Marine monitoring is challenging because of the considerable area to be covered, the limited spatial and temporal extent of a potential leakage event, and the considerable natural variability in the marine environment. In this review, we summarize marine monitoring strategies developed to ensure adequate monitoring of the marine environment without introducing prohibitive costs. We also provide an overview of the many different technologies applicable to different aspects of marine monitoring of geologically stored carbon. Finally, we identify remaining knowledge gaps and indicate expected directions for future research.

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Measurement, monitoring and verification (MMV) are vital to ensure the conformance and containment of geological carbon storage (GCS). This requires cost-efficient and multidisciplinary approaches. To investigate this challenge in an offshore environment, we have studied and tested different monitoring approaches, covering seismic, electromagnetic, micro-seismic, active and passive sonar, and chemical sensing methods. The studies in the manuscript are based on laboratory- and field-scale tests. The data of our current interest are various as mentioned above, and for both deep- and shallow-focused monitoring. We measured laboratory geophysical data in the scenario of CO2 flowing through a fracture in a sandstone core sample (De Geerdalen Formation, Svalbard, Norway) to see the possibility of detecting leakage. The field-scale feasibility was also demonstrated through a synthetic modeling study. Laboratory acoustic emission tests were performed with North-Sea relevant rock samples to evaluate the micro-seismic applicability to offshore GCS monitoring. Acoustic and chemical sensor technologies are considered essential for marine monitoring of the seabed and water column, but knowledge and documentation on how to optimally use and combine these technologies is scarce. During a recent controlled CO2 release experiment, we have investigated the performance of different acoustic and chemical technologies for application to GCS monitoring. By quantifying the capabilities and limitations of different acoustic and chemical technologies, we aim to provide operators with the knowledge needed to maximize monitoring performance while minimizing the number of sensors and costly operations. First, it was learned through a laboratory rock physical test that electromagnetic signal is relatively sensitive to CO2 flow through fracture (and potentially faults as well) compared to seismic. The acoustic emission tests showed that reservoir sandstone core samples are subjected to induced seismicity, whereas the cap-rock or shale are rather quiet during these tests. To be conclusive, more tests and data analysis are required. Nevertheless, the up to date result indicates that detection of leakage in shale only via micro-seismic might be challenging. Initial results from the cotrolled experiments releasing CO2 to the water column indicate that a small amount of CO2 in gas phase may be detected from a large distance (100s of meters) using a broadband echo sounder. Passive acoustic detection of a small leak (1.15 l/min) was feasible from a distance of 10m. A plume of dissolved CO2 was detectable using chemical CO2 and pH sensors placed 4-10 m from the origin of the leak, when releasing CO2 at a rate of 5-6 l/min. Finally, we have investigated how to integrate the deep-focused geophysical and shallow-focused seafloor monitoring techniques. In our study, we have used a set of leakage scenarios (leakage path, rate, etc.) available in the literature. In addition, we have included into our discussion additional datasets e.g. surface/seafloor heaving and gravity not directly acquired in the current study but available through literature. We conclude that integrating different datasets and different disciplines are necessary to maximize the extracted information and eventually to save cost as well. In addition, relevant future R&D task candidates have been identified.

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