This talk aims to create awareness of the recently published Guidelines for Applications of the CO₂ Storage Resources Management System (SRMS). The SRMS was first published in 2017 and is now sponsored by the world’s foremost industry-focused professional societies, including SPE, AAPG, SEG, SPWLA, EAGE, SPEE and WPC. The Guidelines were released in June 2022 and are available from the SPE bookstore. Although a voluntary system, the intent is that regulators, government departments, and financiers will be able to draw upon the experience of managing petroleum resources to advise on the management of carbon dioxide storage resources.

The SRMS is modelled on the Petroleum Resource Management System (PRMS). This was a deliberate choice aimed at making the development of storage resources clearer by drawing parallels with the well-known and well-understood process of maturing petroleum resources. The need to show that injected CO₂ can be contained in a geologic formation is the key difference between exploring for CO₂ storage resources and exploring for petroleum accumulations.

According to the SRMS, a CO₂ storage resource is defined as the quantity (mass or volume) of CO₂ that can be stored in a geologic formation. This storage can be in geologic structures (e.g., an anticline) or in regionally extensive dipping geologic formations. The storage mechanisms are geologic (structural and stratigraphic), residual, solubility, and mineral trapping, and an inherent consideration in any storage resources is that displaced fluids (e.g., brine or hydrocarbons) are managed.

A significant case study from Santos’ Moomba CCS project in the Cooper Basin is provided to demonstrate incorporation of SRMS in storage resource assessments. The Moomba project is the world’s first commercial CCS project to incorporate the SRMS system and to include the CO₂ resource in a company’s annual report.   As more experience is gained through the development of commercial projects such as Moomba, the SRMS and Guidelines undoubtedly will be updated.