Key Takeaways
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The UK has installed the first monitoring systems for its first commercial-scale offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
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The facility is expected to permanently store up to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide beneath the North Sea over 25 years.
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The systems are designed for long-term autonomous operation on the seabed, without the need for regular recovery.
The UK has installed the first monitoring systems for its first commercial-scale offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, a major breakthrough toward developing a facility expected to permanently store up to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide over 25 years beneath the North Sea.
The system comprising a six seabed landers has been deployed at the Endurance CO₂ store, around 93 miles (150 kilometers) off the coast of Teesside, before carbon dioxide injection begins. According to the team, the new system will establish baseline environmental and seismic conditions and enable engineers to verify that injected CO₂ remains safely contained underground throughout the project’s lifetime.
It is deployed under the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) project, a joint venture between BP, Equinor, and TotalEnergies. The partnership is developing the transportation and storage infrastructure for the UK’s East Coast Cluster, one of the country’s flagship industrial decarbonization initiatives.
CO₂ injection is scheduled to begin in 2028, making Endurance the UK’s first operational commercial-scale offshore CCS project.
Baseline before carbon storage
The monitoring campaign combines three autonomous environmental monitoring landers built by Sonardyne, now part of Kraken Robotics, with three co-located TIAMAT passive seismic monitoring systems developed by Germany’s K.U.M.
Newly deployed systems are collecting baseline measurements of seawater chemistry, ocean currents, seabed conditions, and natural seismic activity before any carbon dioxide is injected into these storage systems. These measurements will provide a reference against which future changes can be compared once storage operations begin.
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Beneath the seabed, the reservoir lies approximately 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) deep. At these depths, porous rock formations are expected to permanently contain captured industrial emissions transported from Teesside and the Humber.
Under the project’s measurement, monitoring, and verification (MMV) program, the monitoring equipment is designed to demonstrate that stored carbon dioxide remains securely trapped in the geological reservoir over decades.
Continuous monitoring without retrieval
Sonardyne’s landers are designed for long-term autonomous operation on the seabed, without the need for regular recovery.
Onboard power management, edge data processing, and wireless underwater acoustic communications help to operate the system remotely and periodically transmit information to the sea surface.
This allows engineers to collect data over extended periods without repeatedly retrieving the instruments, reducing operational costs while maintaining continuous oversight of the storage site.
“Confidence in offshore CO₂ storage starts with good data,” said Stephen Auld, Business Development Manager for Custom Projects at Sonardyne.
He said reliable environmental and micro-seismic monitoring throughout the storage lifecycle, not just at a single point in time, is essential for demonstrating the integrity of offshore carbon storage.
UK’s decarbonization goals
NEP said establishing environmental and seismic baselines before operations begin is a critical step in proving the long-term safety of offshore carbon storage.
“The deployment of these monitoring systems is a great example of the expertise and innovation that is helping to deliver CCS in the UK,” said Mike Stephen, Head of Technical at NEP.
He added that the data collected will help verify the safe and secure storage of carbon dioxide over time while supporting the infrastructure needed to decarbonize heavy industry across Teesside, the Humber, and surrounding regions.
Once operational, the Endurance project will provide the offshore storage component for the East Coast Cluster, transporting captured carbon emissions from industrial facilities to the North Sea for permanent underground storage. Over its first 25 years of operation, the site is expected to sequester up to 100 million tons of CO₂, making it one of Europe’s largest planned offshore carbon storage projects.
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