Investigating Risks Associated with Storing Carbon Dioxide under the Seabed

Researchers in Southampton, UK, are playing a key role in investigating the risks of leaks from carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage reservoirs situated under the seabed. Academics from the University of Southampton will work with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) on a NERC-funded project to understand the risks involved in the storage of CO₂ in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and saline aquifers in the North Sea.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is recognised as an important way of reducing the amount of CO₂ added to the atmosphere, and oil and gas reservoirs and saline aquifers are the preferred storage location of most European nations. However, a key element in the safety of such storage is to fully understand the risks of any leakage.

University of Southampton lead scientist Professor Jonathan Bull, a professor in geology and geophysics, said that the location and potential size of any possible CO₂ leakage at the sea floor is critically dependent on the distribution and permeability of fluid pathways in the marine sediments overlying any proposed storage reservoir.

The four-year project aims to develop better techniques to locate these sub-seafloor structures and determine the permeability of the pathways so that they can be better constrained and quantified. Amongst other equipment specified for the project, the Applied Acoustics’ DTS-500 deep-tow sparker will be used to survey the geology beneath the seabed to determine, in high resolution, the geophysical stratigraphy of the sedimentary basins.