Jordan Soto, executive producer, Hart Energy: How can passive seismic monitoring pave the way for a sustainable and energy-rich future? Find out in this Hart Energy LIVE exclusive with Microseismic. So earlier this year, Microseismic was awarded a Department of Energy grant involving your CO2 secure monitoring service. Tell me a little bit about this project and what it involves.

Gary Hargraves, president & COO, Microseismic: Sure, Jordan. We're very excited to receive this award. It's actually a third award for us to receive from the DOE in the carbon space. And for this particular project, what we'll do is we're going to work with an operator for when they start to store carbon in the ground and we're going to monitor [the carbon], make sure that it stays where we're placing it, right? And so we'll check for induced seismicity, we'll ensure the integrity of the cap rock and make sure that what's going in the ground is indeed staying there.

JS: It’s … secure, if you will.

GH: Yes, absolutely.

JS: And with all of this excitement and investment and activity in CCUS and geothermal markets, what's still needed to ensure that these markets become more mainstream?

GH: And mainstream is what is needed. And right now, with all of these kind of new energy solutions, we're still really early with the adoption and what's needed with industry leaders, and really anybody that's in the energy business right now is advocation. Just last night I was in Dayton, Texas at a local event that an operator was hosting for just community awareness, right? And I wanted to go and show my support. And I think those types of activities are very important just to make sure that people understand really what carbon is all about, and what geothermal is really all about and how it's going to help their communities and the world.

JS: Having the conversation is so important and getting the conversation and message out there is even more important. How is Microseismic leveraging the 20 years of success in the passive seismic monitoring business with these new energy solutions?

GH: Sure. It's really interesting because where these new energy solutions are going to occur, and these new projects are coming online, they're areas where, for the past 20 years, we've already operated and listened to and acquired data for our oil and gas business. And now what we're seeing is: there's carbon projects being planned in the same areas. There's geothermal projects being planned in the same areas, and there's also sink holes in this … environment. And we feel like we're uniquely positioned to really understand what's going on and monitor these projects because we have solutions in all of those areas.

JS: I want to go back to something that you said earlier. Microseismic, as you said, has been awarded three DOE grants for Carbon Solutions. Congratulations! And I hear that MSI also has submitted several DOE applications for geothermal as well. So what is the feedback you're hearing from the DOE alliances and future projects on these awarded grants?

GH: Well, as you know, with all of these solutions, we're really transitioning. And what the DOE is telling us is that they are really excited to invest in companies that have that kind of legacy oil and gas experience in those geotechnical experts and to be able to bring those into these new energy solutions. And that's been the deciding factor on some of these opportunities that we've been awarded for.

JS: Fantastic. Well, we look forward to seeing what you have next in the works. So thank you so much for your time.

GH: Thank you so much as well, Jordan. I appreciate it.

JS: That's your Hart Energy LIVE exclusive interview with Microseismic. To learn more about Microseismic, go online to hartenergy.com.

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