About the CIGSS

The first Caprock Integrity & Gas Storage Symposium and Conference at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory took place on 24–25 January 2024 in the Mont Terri Visitor Centre, St-Ursanne, Switzerland. Due to the capacity of the visitor centre, the conference and symposium is limited to 100 participants.

The CIGSS aims at providing a platform for the exchange and discussion of scientific, technological, industrial, and regulatory advances related to the integrity of caprocks in the context of geological storage of CO₂ and gas storage in general.

The event took place over two days, on 24 and 25 January 2024. The first day was devoted to a symposium with government agencies, industry representatives and invited speakers. The following themes were on the agenda:

• Public acceptance
• Regulation
• Site screening and exploration
• Characterization and behavior of geological reservoirs
• Characterization and behavior of caprocks
• Key research developments of geological storage of CO₂ and other gases
• Expectation of CO₂ producers

The second was be devoted to a scientific conference, with poster session, open to researchers in the field of fault, caprock and borehole integrity and gas storage in general. We received contributions on the topics:

• Small-scale laboratory experiments
• Medium-scale rock laboratory experiments toward pilot-scale project
• Local and regional geological and structural investigations of potential sites
• Risk and hazard assessments
• Numerical studies and innovative monitoring systems

The Mont Terri rock laboratory (St-Ursanne, Jura, Switzerland) is operated by the Swiss Geological Survey at swisstopo and known since 1996 for its international research on deep geological storage of radioactive waste. In that context, several experiments dealing with gas migration in claystone have been conducted, using hydrogen and other gases. The rock laboratory also holds a central position in research on the geological storage of CO₂. The Opalinus Clay shale is regarded as one of the best characterized host rocks and an ideal reference for caprocks worldwide. Dedicated experiments in the Opalinus Clay formation as a caprock have been carried out for more than a decade at Mont Terri. Therefore, swisstopo has suggested the Mont Terri site to organize and host this international symposium annually.