Geophysical exploration case histories at the PITOP geophysical test site - A key facility in the ECCSEL-ERIC consortium: an overview

PITOP is a geophysical test site, owned by OGS, located in Italy, designed and developed with the objective of providing a facility for the testing of drilling technologies, measurements, and diagnostics during drilling, geophysical methods while drilling, new technologies and borehole/surface tools under realistic conditions. Initially, four wells were available: of which two equipped with borehole sensors, with the possibility of drilling two additional wells to perform while-drilling experiments. Thanks to the PNRR funding, a new well, instrumented for geoelectrical surveys, was drilled in 2024. A new office/laboratory, built with eco-friendly materials, has improved the attractiveness of the site, where permanent laboratories already exist. Auxiliary borehole/surface seismic sources and sensors are available. Due to its characteristics, PITOP represents a unique scientific test site. PITOP is part of the European Research Infrastructure for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilisation, Transport and Storage and represents a resource that is available to the scientific and industrial community on request. The objective of this work is to provide a description of the infrastructure and an overview of the experiments already performed to broaden the range of potential stakeholders to promote research and technology development in the drilling/geophysics field, as well as to boost carbon dioxide capture and storage applications, including monitoring, for climate change mitigation purposes.