Assurance monitoring approach for the Heartland Area Redwater Project (HARP) geological CO2 storage project, Alberta, Canada

AbstractThe Heartland Area Redwater Project (HARP) aims to inject and geologically store up to a gigatonne of captured CO2 derived from Alberta’s Industrial Heartland. The storage formation will be the vast water leg of the Devonian Redwater-Leduc carbonate reef structure, also host to Canada’s third largest conventional oil pool. Extensive characterization activities, including geological, geophysical, hydrogeological, geochemical, soil, atmospheric studies and land management practices are currently nearing completion. Combined information from these studies is allowing for the integration and development of conceptual and numerical models. Intensive activity is currently focused upon a small pilot site within the water leg of the reef. Should this pilot program prove to be successful, CO2 injection, and the associated monitoring program, may be scaled up to allow an annual injection of up to 1 million tonnes of CO2. The integration of near surface characterization and monitoring along with injection formation characterization (e.g. fluid sampling and time-series geophysics) and well integrity studies have guided the design and implementation of the HARP assurance monitoring program. Field data acquisition and interpretation are currently ongoing to allow a preoperational phase, pilot-scale, assurance monitoring baseline to be established. Public consultation and stakeholder involvement with the project forms a key component in both implementing the program, and allowing for sustainable agricultural and industrial development within the Alberta Industrial Heartland area