Characterisation and Monitoring of the Goldeneye CO2 Storage Site

The Peterhead CCS project is planning to safely store between 10 Mt to 15 Mt of CO2 in the depleted Goldeneye gas reservoir, at a depth of more than 2km under the seabed of the North Sea. The Goldeneye Measurement, Monitoring and Verification Plan is designed according to a systematic risk assessment which informs containment and conformance monitoring activities to achieve all regulatory objectives as defined by the EU CCS Directive. In order to meet these requirements, a carefully chosen monitoring system will operate through all phases (pre-injection baseline, injection, post-injection) of the project and at all levels (marine environment, geosphere and wells) of the Goldeneye storage complex. In the site-characterisation phase of the project, the 3D pre-stack depth migration volume was scanned for possible conduits that could function as potential leak paths for unexpected CO2 movement. The geophysical analysis of an identified seismic data anomaly above the Goldeneye storage complex demonstrated that the feature was caused by imaging problems originating at an overlying channel of Pleistocene age. This study utilised a Shell proprietary re-processed 3D High Definition (HD) seismic volume which was also used to delineate potential flow-paths in the shallow overburden of the Goldeneye storage complex.