Sonardyne has been selected through a competitive bidding process to deliver baseline environmental monitoring services for the UK’s first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) site.
Sonardyne has been contracted by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), the developer of the onshore and offshore infrastructure needed to transport carbon dioxide (CO2) from carbon capture projects across Teesside and the Humber – collectively known as the East Coast Cluster – to secure storage under the North Sea. The infrastructure is crucial to achieving net zero in the UK’s most carbon intensive industrial regions.
We will provide environmental monitoring, in the form of seabed landers, at key locations above and around the subsurface Endurance site – the saline aquifer located 145km off the coast of Teesside where captured CO2 will be stored.
'NEP is at the forefront of driving the UK’s journey to net zero in securing a permit for carbon capture and storage at the Endurance site. Our collaboration with Sonardyne to monitor the storage site plays a critical role in ensuring carbon is stored safely and securely,' said Sarah Buchanan, bp Subsurface Manager.
Monitoring of the site will begin in the summer of 2026 to provide baseline data for a duration of two years before the transportation and storage of captured CO2 commences. The seabed landers will be equipped with our Edge data processing application, power management and acoustic through-water communications to enable long-term, remote battery-operated deployment. Each lander will also contain a suite of hardware including our Origin 600 ADCP, Wavefront’s passive sonar array and multiple third-party sensors. Together, this technology can detect small changes in water chemistry across a wide area, while the data can be harvested, without retrieving the lander, using wireless subsea acoustic communication techniques.
Monitoring is a key activity for offshore CCS developments to verify safe containment of CO2 within the reservoir, provide reassurance to stakeholders and foster public confidence in this greenhouse gas abatement process.
Stephen Auld, Business Development Manager for Custom Projects at Sonardyne, welcomed the appointment:
'Being selected to deliver subsea environmental monitoring for this landmark project is a real honour and a testament to Sonardyne’s significant experience and expertise in this field. As a company who are already carbon neutral in our UK operations, we are passionate about combatting climate change and the drive for carbon neutrality. We are delighted to be working with NEP in delivering cutting edge marine technology to ensure their safe and successful offshore carbon storage operations.'
Note: The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), is a joint venture between bp, Equinor, and TotalEnergies. The NEP is building carbon dioxide transportation and storage infrastructure for carbon capture projects in the United Kingdom’s East Coast Cluster.
Source: Sonardyne
