Monitoring of the Deep Subsurface: Leakage pathways – understanding and monitoring the mechanics of CO2 storage

The processes accompanying CO2 migration or leakage through the geological seals of storage sites is an important research topic. It is exceedingly likely that intact water-saturated cap-rocks will act as capillary seals and prevent  leakage of free CO2. However typical overburden successions contain faults and fractures and also natural fluid-flow pathways that are at least partially saturated with natural gas.
The sealing performance of these features may not be so good, particularly in the context of changing stress fields and increasing reservoir pressure as injection proceeds. If CO2 does enter the overburden a number of attenuation processes will be triggered, including diffusion and dissolution into the water phase and chemical reaction with the pore-fluid and rock minerals.
This meeting aims to bring together researchers from different disciplines, showing laboratory results, models and analysis of monitoring data from real storage sites, to discuss these issues, try to better understand them, and plan how further research might be developed.
PROCEEDINGS
The meeting proceedings including agenda, presentations etc can be downloaded here

AGENDA (click on presentation titles for available PDFs)

Time Speaker NameSpeaker InstitutionPresentation Title
Meeting Chairs:
Dr Anna Stork, University of Bristol (am)
Professor Michael Kendall, University of Bristol (pm)
9.45 – 10.15Arrival and registration
10.15 – 10.40John MarshallShellThe Peterhead CO2 storage project – understanding subsurface containment issues
10.40 – 11.05Lisa RoachUniversity of LeedsPre-Injection Assessment of Time-Lapse Seismic Repeatability at the Aquistore CO2 Storage Site using a Sparse Seismic Array
11.05 – 11.30Coffee Break
11:30 – 11.55Angus BestUniversity of SouthamptonPhysics of rocks for CO2 reservoir characterisation and monitoring
11.55– 12.20Dan FaulknerUniversity of LiverpoolDeformation and fluid flow evolution of caprock during injection of CO2 from laboratory experiments
12.20 – 12.45Sam KrevorImperial College LondonImmobilisation in the permeable zone – Residual trapping, capillary heterogeneity and exsolution
12.45 – 13:30Lunch
13:30 – 13.55Laurence CowtonUniversity of CambridgeHow thick is a thin layer? 4D seismic monitoring of CO2 sequestration at the Sleipner Field
13.55 – 14.20Andy Chadwick and Tom BradwellBGSMusings on potential CO2 migration along pre-existing (or former) fluid flow pathways in the overburden
14.20 – 14.50Coffee Break
14.50 – 15:15Tom LynchUniversity of LeedsModelling Stress Path and Fracture Pressure Hysteresis for CO2 storage in depleted reservoirs
15.15 – 15.40James VerdonUniversity of BristolCCS and Induced Seismicity
15.40 – 17.00Discussion
Facilitated by Dr Andy Chadwick, BGS
17.30Dinner (The Mall Pub, 66 The Mall, Bristol BS8 4JG)

 

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