Industry Collaboration Needed: Maturing Geophysics Technologies for Monitoring CO2 Plumes

Geophysics technologies are critical tools for meeting regulatory requirements and operational demands of CO2 storage projects, specifically the indirect tracking of plumes for confidence in conformance and containment. The CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) industry is adapting existing technologies from the oil and gas industry and developing new technologies specifically for CO2 monitoring applications. Given the relatively low number of active, commercial CO2 storage projects globally, paired with the forecasted near-term increase in projects, funding for technology development may be challenging, albeit necessary, to procure. All of industry (operators, vendors, and academia) must work towards the same goal of maturing technologies that will enable short-cycle-time, cost-effective, long-term CO2 plume monitoring sufficient for enabling reservoir management. We performed an assessment of available geophysics technologies and their technical maturity for CO2 plume monitoring in saline aquifers, in order to facilitate identification of less mature technologies for potential development and validation. In scope were remote sensing technologies that measure subsurface properties using the gravitational field, propagation of elastic waves (seismic), or propagation of electromagnetic (EM) energy. Technologies were identified and assessed based on internal knowledge, external literature, and interviews with internal subject matter experts. The maturity of each technology was categorized on a scale from immature, i.e., Concept Stage, to Commercial, then high-graded based on relative cycle time, cost, coverage, and resolution. We conclude that reducing costs and cycle time of active source seismic is a high priority, that multi-physics approaches utilizing multiple properties to characterize the subsurface should be matured, and that borehole potential field technologies need further demonstration to delineate possible detection limits.