Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data, gathered over the In Salah CO2 storage project in Algeria, provide an early indication that satellite‐based geodetic methods can be effective in monitoring the geological storage of carbon dioxide. An injected mass of 3 million tons of carbon dioxide from one of the first large‐scale carbon sequestration efforts, produces a measurable surface displacement of approximately 5 mm/year. Using geophysical inverse techniques, we are able to infer flow within the reservoir layer and within a seismically detected fracture/fault zone intersecting the reservoir. We find that, if we use the best available elastic Earth model, the fluid flow need only occur in the vicinity of the reservoir layer. However, flow associated with the injection of the carbon dioxide does appear to extend several kilometers laterally within the reservoir, following the fracture/fault zone.

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The In Salah project in Algeria is an industrial-scale [Formula: see text] storage project that has been in operation since 2004. [Formula: see text] from several gas fields, which have a [Formula: see text] content of 5–10%, is removed from the production stream to meet the sales gas-export specification of 0.3% [Formula: see text]. Rather than vent that separated [Formula: see text] to the atmosphere (as was normal industry practice for such gas plants), BP and its joint venture (JV) partner, Sonatrach, invested an incremental US$100 million in a project to compress, dehydrate, transport, and inject that [Formula: see text] into a deep saline formation downdip of the producing gas horizon. Statoil then joined the JV at production start-up in August 2004.

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