Sonardyne Deploys Seabed Landers at UK’s First Commercial CO2 Store

Sonardyne, a Kraken Robotics company, has begun baseline environmental and passive seismic monitoring at the Endurance CO2 store, the UK’s first commercial-scale offshore carbon storage project. Six seabed lander systems have been deployed by the Northern Endurance Partnership about 150 kilometers off the coast of Teesside in the Southern North Sea. The landers will collect data on seawater chemistry, currents, seabed conditions and seismic activity before CO2 injection begins.

 

The Deployment

 

The deployment includes three autonomous environmental monitoring landers designed and built by Sonardyne, along with three co-located TIAMAT passive seismic monitoring systems supplied by German company K.U.M. Sonardyne will manage ongoing operations and data retrieval. The systems are positioned above and around the Endurance store, a saline aquifer about 1,000 metres beneath the seabed. Together they form a key part of the project’s measurement, monitoring and verification programme.

Sonardyne won the contract through a competitive tender in June 2025, with monitoring planned to start in summer 2026. The baseline phase is designed to run for about two years before CO2 transport and storage begins. Gathering data before injection allows operators to understand natural variation in the environment. Any later changes can then be compared against a reliable reference point.

 

Why Baseline Data Matters

 

Monitoring is a core requirement for offshore carbon storage, used to show that CO2 stays safely contained within the reservoir. Regulators, investors, and the public need evidence that stored carbon will not leak back into the ocean or atmosphere. Environmental landers can detect small changes in water chemistry over a wide area, which could indicate a leak. Passive seismic systems monitor for micro-seismic activity that might signal changes in the rock formation.

Stephen Auld, Business Development Manager for Custom Projects at Sonardyne, described the start of monitoring as a significant moment for the company and the partnership. He said confidence in offshore CO2 storage begins with good data. Auld stressed that long-term assurance depends on reliable data gathered throughout the storage lifecycle, not a single measurement. He said this draws on Sonardyne’s experience in seabed-resident monitoring, acoustic communications and offshore integrity monitoring.

 

Long-Endurance Technology

 

Sonardyne’s landers are designed to remain on the seabed for long periods. They use onboard power management, Sonardyne’s Edge data processing software, and wireless underwater communications to operate remotely. Data can be sent acoustically from the seabed to the surface without recovering the landers. This reduces the need for costly vessel trips and keeps monitoring continuous.

According to Sonardyne’s original contract announcement, each lander carries equipment including the company’s Origin 600 acoustic Doppler current profiler and a Wavefront passive sonar array, alongside third-party sensors. Combining several sensor types gives a fuller picture of the seabed environment. Long, repeatable records are particularly valuable for verification, since they show trends rather than isolated readings. The approach is intended to set a model for monitoring at other UK carbon stores.

 

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The Northern Endurance Partnership

 

The Northern Endurance Partnership is a joint venture between bp, which acts as operator, Equinor and TotalEnergies. It is developing the onshore and offshore infrastructure to transport CO2 from industrial emitters in Teesside and the Humber, together known as the East Coast Cluster, to storage under the North Sea. The first phase is expected to store up to 100 million tonnes of CO2 over 25 years. First injection is currently expected in 2028.

Mike Stephen, Head of Technical at NEP, said the deployment shows the expertise and innovation helping to deliver carbon capture and storage in the UK. He said establishing a robust environmental and seismic baseline before operations begin is vital to the long-term monitoring program. Stephen added that the data will help demonstrate the safe and secure storage of CO2 over time. He said working with technology partners builds confidence in offshore storage and supports industrial decarbonization in the region.

 

Significance for UK Carbon Storage

 

The start of monitoring marks a practical step from planning to delivery for the UK’s carbon capture ambitions. The East Coast Cluster is one of the government’s priority clusters, intended to cut emissions from heavy industry, power generation and hydrogen production. Its success depends on proving that offshore storage is safe and reliable at commercial scale. Credible monitoring data will be central to building that case.

The project also reflects how subsea technology developed for oil and gas is being adapted for the energy transition. Seabed sensing, acoustic communications and integrity monitoring are directly applicable to carbon storage sites. As more UK and European stores are developed, demand for long-term monitoring services is expected to grow. Endurance may become a reference project for how such monitoring is carried out.