H2 and CO2 Storage in Lower Triassic Sandstones, East Irish Sea Basin

About the Project

Assess the potential of Lower Triassic sandstones beneath the East Irish Sea to store hydrogen and CO2 in saline aquifers. Interpret wireline logs from over 100 wells alongside 3D seismic data using Petrel and Techlog, visit classic Sherwood Sandstone outcrops, and join an Eni-funded multi-university team addressing one of the energy transition's most pressing subsurface challenges.

About this opportunity

Tackling climate change requires two parallel efforts: replacing fossil fuels with renewables, and safely disposing of the CO2 that fossil fuel use continues to produce. Both create an urgent need for suitable underground storage. The Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group (SSG) beneath the East Irish Sea Basin is a strong geological candidate, offering potentially extensive saline aquifers capable of hosting both transient hydrogen storage and permanent CO2 sequestration. Yet large parts of the basin, particularly those lying outside the established CS004 CCS licence area, remain poorly characterised.

This PhD, funded by Eni as part of a linked multi-university programme, will deliver the first detailed subsurface assessment of SSG reservoir architecture and trapping potential across this underexplored region, with results that will directly inform decisions about where storage sites could be safely and efficiently developed.

What you will do

You will work with an exceptionally rich subsurface dataset: wireline logs from up to 126 wells, multiple 3D seismic surveys, and supplementary onshore data from the BGS, covering areas both inside and outside the CS004 licence area to allow direct comparison of sandstone properties in structured hydrocarbon fields versus open saline aquifers. Using Petrel and Techlog, you will map the Ormskirk Formation in three dimensions, defining reservoir thickness, porosity, clay content and structural configuration, and identifying potential trapping geometries beneath the Mercia Mudstone Group caprock.

The work unfolds across six work-packages, progressing from training and data compilation through to integrated seismic and well correlation, structure mapping, and final recommendations for Eni on the most geologically suitable storage locations relative to existing faults and infrastructure.

Fieldwork plays an important role throughout. The Sherwood Sandstone crops out extensively across the region, at Runcorn, Helsby, Thurstaston, Hilbre Island, Beeston Castle and Alderley Edge among other localities, and you will log, describe and record these outcrops directly. Combined with visits to the BGS core store at Keyworth, this fieldwork grounds your subsurface interpretations in real sedimentology and gives you a physical understanding of reservoir rock that no amount of log data alone can provide.

Training and collaboration

The project is based at Liverpool, with supervisory input from colleagues at Durham and Manchester. You will engage directly with Eni’s geoscience staff in London and potentially Milan from an early stage, gaining exposure to industrial workflows and professional expectations that will serve you well beyond the PhD.

Training in Petrel and Techlog is embedded in the first work-package and is supported throughout. Alongside software skills, you will develop expertise in clastic sedimentology, seismic interpretation, structural geology and reservoir characterisation, a combination that is in strong demand across the subsurface energy, CCS and hydrogen storage sectors.

Project structure

The first year centres on training, data gathering and initial well log interpretation, building the foundation of software competence and geological understanding on which the rest of the project depends. Years two and three move progressively towards independent seismic interpretation, cross-section construction and map production. The final year is dedicated to synthesis and thesis writing, with results communicated to the supervisory team and to Eni. You will leave the project technically well-equipped and professionally connected for a career at the forefront of subsurface energy geoscience.