Steve has been a contributor at previous meetings of the IEA GHG Risk Assessment network and this joint network meeting was the first opportunity for the Risk Assessment network to share information with the Well-bore Integrity and Monitoring networks at an organised meeting. The aim of the meeting was to increase the communication and cooperation between the networks and to help refine each network's work programme for the next 3-4 years in order to gain the most benefit from the parallel agendas and common goals of the networks. The meeting was held over three days in New York.

The meeting was an excellent opportunity to discuss the cutting edge developments in all areas touched by the individual research networks. Each network gave a presentation on the state-of-the-art in their individual subjects and areas of common interest between the groups were identified where collaboration between the networks could enhance and more tightly focus future work.

One highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Eris O'Brien and John Kaldi on recent developments at the Otway Basin pilot CO₂ storage project in Australia. At Otway, CO₂ arising from a production well for methane is injected into a depleted natural gas field where it is monitored by CO2RC. It is planned to inject 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ over a 1-2 year period. The project has engaged local stakeholders during a community consultation programme, local authorities and state regulators in the process of developing a risk assessment to build confidence in the storage design.