4.4 Main differences with gas storage, or other oil- and gas operations

Obviously hydrocarbon storage operations can be labelled as a more mature technology, with experiences dating back for almost a century (Perry, 2004). At least in case of the US and the EU, monitoring of hydrocarbon storage uses a number of quite similar monitoring approaches and methods as proposed for CO2 storage. These include PVT inventory verification, surface and deep well monitoring (and reservoir testing), gas sampling and tracing and last but not the least, caprock integrity evaluation. In case of natural gas storage well monitoring (wells penetrating the reservoir formation and potable aquifers) seems to be the most important monitoring method for leak detection (Perry, 2004).