Reservoir characterization, seal integrity assessment, and monitoring to ensure safe and effective implementation of carbon storage: A critical review

CO 2 storage is a potential strategy for decarbonizing the fossil-based power and industrial sectors while also serving as a bridge technology for a long-term transition to a zero-emission future. CO 2 storage has been identified as the most effective technique for reducing CO 2 emissions. While numerous reviews exist, this study offers a critical synthesis focused on the integrated role of petrophysical properties across the entire lifecycle of carbon storage projects—from reservoir characterization and seal integrity assessment to real-time monitoring. Unlike reviews that treat these aspects independently, this paper emphasizes their interdependencies and practical implications for project safety and efficiency. It examines how porosity, permeability, wettability, and other petrophysical parameters influence storage capacity, injectivity, trapping mechanisms, and caprock stability. This review also addresses how uncertainty in petrophysical measurements can propagate through modeling and risk assessments and evaluates tools and simulators in terms of their sensitivity to such inputs. A novel contribution is linking petrophysical data quality with seal failure risks and monitoring reliability, an area underexplored in the existing literature. The study concludes by identifying critical research gaps and proposing a roadmap to enhance the reliability of future CO 2 storage projects. These insights aim to support both researchers and project developers in designing more robust, data-informed storage strategies.