Underwater technology company Sonardyne has added more work to its existing contract with the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a joint venture of BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies, for the UK’s first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
Developed some 75 kilometers east of Flamborough Head, the NEP project will comprise an onshore CO2 gathering network, compression facilities and a 145-kilometer offshore pipeline connected to subsea injection facilities in the Endurance saline aquifer located around 1,000 meters below the North Sea seabed.
This infrastructure will initially serve the Teesside-based East Coast Cluster (ECC) carbon capture projects – NZT Power, H2Teesside and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture – that were selected for first connection to NEP by DESNZ in March 2023 as part of the UK’s cluster sequencing process for carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS).
Sonardyne reported today, November 18, that passive seismic monitoring services had been added to the existing contract, announced this June , forming part of a wider monitoring program at the Endurance CO2 storage site.
The passive seismic monitoring services will generate baseline data ahead of NEP operations, with a potential for these services to continue into injection, to provide longer-term surveillance of the subsurface.
“Being trusted to deliver passive seismic monitoring, in addition to environmental monitoring, for the UK’s first CCS project is an honour and highlights Sonardyne’s technical leadership in subsea environmental monitoring,” said Stephen Auld , Business Development Manager for Custom Projects at Sonardyne.
“We are committed to supporting NEP’s work to deliver safe, long-term containment of CO2 offshore and are very proud to contribute our expertise to this landmark project.”
The UK-headquartered company will adapt, deploy and operate advanced ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs), manufactured by German technology company KUM GmbH, on the seabed above the reservoir. The OBS monitoring scope is expected to start in the summer of 2026, with the first seismic data delivered to NEP one year later.
Storage at the site is expected to start in 2028, making it the first operational CCS project in the UK. The initial phase is expected to see up to 100 million tons of CO2 stored in the Endurance aquifer over a 25-year period.