Assessment of Safety Standards at Onshore Salt Cavity and Naturally Occurring Reservoir Storage Sites

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DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS awarded a contract to Senergy Wells Ltd for assessing safety standards at boreholes associated with underground salt cavity and naturally occurring reservoir gas storage developments, and for evaluating wider geological issues affecting safety.

The contract, valued at £33,600, required the assessment of notifications for solution mined and naturally occurring reservoir gas storage sites against standards equivalent to the Borehole Sites and Operations Regulations 1995 (BSOR), including confirmation that notifications contained all information equivalent to Schedule 1, Part 1 of BSOR, demonstration of compliance with the principles of the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc) Regulations 1996 (DCR), and demonstration that COMAH site operators followed their policies, procedures, and good industry practice.

It also involved assessing the standard of well design, construction, and integrity demonstration in COMAH pre-construction and pre-operational safety reports, assessing the standard of geological demonstration in such reports to secure safe storage of gas within reservoirs and formed cavities, and assessing the link between measures taken and major accident hazard scenarios.

The successful tenderer was required to meet with gas cavity storage site operators and developers to agree the minimum information required to meet COMAH pre-construction safety report geological and borehole integrity demonstrations, provide written conclusions to HSE on the standard of notifications and/or demonstrations, and meet with other assessment team members to agree overall assessment conclusions.