Bunter Sandstone Storage Complex Thematic Research
The Lower to Middle Triassic Bunter Sandstone Formation represents one of the primary CO2 storage reservoirs in the Southern North Sea and will play an integral role in the UK’s Net Zero Strategy.
A thorough geological appraisal of both the reservoir and seal intervals is essential for successful carbon storage. The seven projects comprising CASP’s Bunter Sandstone Storage Complex theme provide detailed sedimentological, compositional and petrophysical studies of both reservoir and seal intervals, as well as a new palynostratigraphic and cyclostratigraphic frameworks to enhance regional correlation.
The reports generated by this research theme are based on core and cuttings material from select wells in the Southern North Sea (UK and Dutch sectors), as well as a unique, fully-cored section through the entire Triassic succession from an onshore borehole in North Yorkshire. Projects BSSC.1 – 3 focus on regional correlation, specifically the generation of a Triassic palynostratigraphy (BSSC.1), and the application of this palynostratigraphy to select wells in the UK and Dutch sectors of the SNS (BSSC.2). In BSSC.3 the identification of 100 kyr and 400 kyr eccentricity cycles within the reservoir interval, enables a high-order wireline correlation across the basin. Projects BSSC.4 and 5 focus on the sedimentology, composition and diagenesis of the Bunter Sandstone Formation, and a heavy mineral provenance study, respectively. Projects BSSC.6 and 7 focus on the seal and overburden (Haisborough Group), creating a unique integrated sedimentological, compositional and petrophysical dataset from a fully-cored, onshore reference well (BSSC.6), and the application of these learnings to offshore core material from the UK and Dutch SNS (BSSC.7).
For further details of this research, see the individual projects pages below.
- Completed project: A Palynozonation of the Bunter Sandstone CO2 storage complex: onshore analogue study (CASP.BSSC.1)
- Palynostratigraphy of the Bunter Sandstone CO2 storage complex in the Southern North Sea (CASP.BSSC.2)
- Cyclostratigraphy of the Early to Middle Triassic of the Southern North Sea (CASP.BSSC.3)
- Reservoir composition and diagenesis (CASP.BSSC.4)
- Completed project: Controls on Bunter Sandstone composition (CASP.BSSC.5)
- Completed project: Middle Triassic seals – onshore analogue study (CASP.BSSC.6)
- Middle Triassic seals – UK and Dutch offshore wells study (CASP.BSSC.7)
Contact(s): Mike Curtis
Reports Issued in This Theme
- Composition and sealing capacity of the Haisborough Group in the SM14 borehole, North Yorkshire, UK: a reference well for the Southern North Sea CASP.BSSC.6
- A heavy mineral provenance study of the Bunter Sandstone Formation in the Southern North Sea CASP.BSSC.5
- A palynozonation of the Bunter Sandstone CO2 storage complex: onshore well study CASP.BSSC.1