energy · North Sea — UK Continental Shelf
Acorn CCS — North Sea Carbon Capture GIS Platform
ESRI RecognisedDesigned and delivered the enterprise GIS platform for one of the UK's pioneer North Sea carbon capture and storage projects — consolidating geo-data across 6 work areas into a cloud system with 2 custom web applications. 3,500+ hours delivered across 2021–2024. ESRI recognised as best practice for offshore CCS.
The Challenge
The Problem We Were Asked to Solve
Storegga's Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage project was among the first pioneer CCS developments on the UK Continental Shelf, requiring a geospatial system commensurate with the scale and complexity of the programme. The project spanned 6 distinct work areas across the North Sea — Acorn South, Acorn East, Acorn Central (Cromarty), East Mey, Buzzard (UTA), and the Peterhead-to-Goldeneye pipeline corridor.
The core data challenge: geospatial data arrived from multiple incompatible sources in different formats — public domain datasets from OGA, BGS, Marine Scotland, JNCC, NOC, GEBCO, and EMODNet; asset operator data from Shell, BP, and others; and ongoing Acorn project-specific survey deliverables. There was no common data standard, no cloud-accessible repository, and no mechanism for engineering teams, environmental specialists, and management to work from the same spatial picture.
Key challenges: - Data in inconsistent formats: CAD drawings, GIS files, PDFs, and spreadsheets, all requiring harmonisation - Multiple coordinate systems (ED50 TM0, WGS84, UTM30N) requiring systematic transformation - No industry-standard data model applied — IOGP SSDM v2 compliance was a requirement - 24/7 cloud accessibility needed for a geographically distributed project team - ESRI licence procurement and user management for multiple roles (Creator, Viewer, Editor) - Ongoing survey data integration across 9 work packages covering bathymetric, geophysical, geotechnical, and environmental survey types - Need for purpose-built web applications — not generic GIS viewers — tailored to Storegga's CCS workflows
Project Details
- Client
- Storegga (via Petrofac Subsea Engineering, WS 11)
- Year
- 2024
- Location
- North Sea — UK Continental Shelf
- Sector
- energy
Tags
Our Approach
What We Built
Phase 1: GIS System Set Up & Data Collation (CTR GIS-01, 2021–2022)
Designed and implemented a dual data model architecture: - Basic Data Model: initial collation repository for all incoming data regardless of format or standard - SSDM v2 Data Model: IOGP Subsea Standard Data Model v2 — the industry standard for offshore geospatial data, applied to all project-specific and processed data
All data stored in ESRI File Geodatabases (.gdb). Established a 5-stage quality control process covering completeness, precision, accuracy, consistency, and coordinate system validation. Set up ArcGIS Online as the cloud repository and procured and managed ESRI licences across all user roles. Delivered a data gap analysis report identifying missing coverage by work area and survey type.
Phase 2: Maintenance & Survey Data Integration (CTR GIS-02A/B/C, 2022–2023)
Quarterly maintenance cycles covering system health checks, data source validation, and integration of new data drops. Integrated two major data drops — asset operator data and survey campaign data. Processed and integrated survey deliverables from all 9 work packages: 1. Acorn South 2. Acorn South to Acorn East corridor 3. Acorn East 4. Acorn South to Buzzard 5. Buzzard UTA 6. Acorn Central (Cromarty) 7. Acorn Central to Atlantic Pipeline 8. Acorn Central to Buzzard UTA 9. Peterhead to Goldeneye Pipeline Tie-in
Survey types integrated: Bathymetry (B), Geotechnical (G), Environmental (E), Geophysical (P).
Phase 3: Custom Web Applications (2022–2023)
Application 1 — Acorn General App Coverage: Acorn area and surrounding regions. Data layers: infrastructure (pipelines, wells, umbilicals, structures), geophysical survey data, environmental data, engineering design routes and KPs, shipwrecks, CPT locations. Capabilities: cloud access from anywhere, custom distance and area measurement tools, online drawing and labelling, attribute pop-ups for all feature types, multi-layer overlay, data export.
Application 2 — Subsea and Well Data App Coverage: North Sea (UK plus partial Norwegian waters). Data layers: infrastructure (pipelines, wells), geological data (lithology, drill stems), 9 geological age visualisations, stratigraphic data. Capabilities: powerful search and filtering by attribute, data export to useful formats, 12-month usage aggregation analytics, cloud access.
Phase 4: Advanced Support & East Mey (CTR AD-H01/H04/H05/H06, CTR EM-A02/A03, 2022–2024)
- CTR AD-H04: Geological WebGIS App (220 hours) — specialised geological data visualisation - CTR AD-H05: WGS84 Web GIS App Updates (220 hours) — coordinate system enhancements - CTR AD-H06: WGS84 Geodesy and Mapping Updates (104 hours) - CTR EM-A03: East Mey GIS Setup (1,080 hours budgeted) — GIS platform for the East Mey development area - CTR EM-A02: East Mey Survey Data Collation and Reporting (472 hours)
Survey Scope Development Prepared comprehensive Scopes of Work and Technical Specifications for all 9 survey work packages, covering survey vessel requirements, data acquisition parameters, processing specifications, and deliverable formats for B/G/E/P survey types.
The Results
What Changed
Operational Impact - Centralised data repository: all offshore geo-data across 6 work areas accessible from a single cloud platform, eliminating data silos and inconsistent working copies - 24/7 project-wide access: engineering teams, environmental specialists, and management work from the same data — no software installation required for viewer-role users - Improved decision-making: complex subsea datasets — geological, geophysical, infrastructure, environmental — visible in a single interactive interface - Cost and error reduction: eliminated discrepancies from teams working with different versions of the same data; caught data quality issues before they reached engineering workflows
Industry Recognition - ESRI recognised the Acorn GIS Platform as best practice for offshore CCS GIS implementation — the flagshipBadge for this project - Successful IOGP SSDM v2 implementation at full programme scale (first application of this standard on a UK CCS pioneer project)
Scale & Delivery - 3,500+ hours delivered across the engagement - 9 survey work packages planned, scoped, and integrated - 2 custom web applications built, deployed, and maintained - 6 work areas covered with full B/G/E/P data coverage - Multiple coordinate systems (ED50 TM0, WGS84, UTM30N) harmonised
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