Monitoring and Modeling Caprock Integrity at the In Salah Carbon Dioxide Storage Site, Algeria

Vasco, D. W.; Bissell, Robert; Bohloli, Bahman; Daley, Thomas M.; Ferretti, A.; Foxall, W.; Goertz‐Allmann, Bettina P.; Korneev, Valeri; Morris, Joseph P.; Oye, Volker; Ramirez, Abelardo; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio; Rucci, A.; Rutqvist, Jonny; White, J. A.; Zhang, Rui

doi:10.1002/9781119118657.ch12

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…At the In Salah, industrial-scale CO 2 storage project in Algeria, low-level seismicity occurred at distances of up to 3–4 km from the CO 2 injection well, in proximity to a pre-existing fault. This seismicity appeared unrelated to injection pressures and injection rates, but was nevertheless interpreted as a sign of reactivation of the mapped fault, either due to large-scale reservoir deformation or through injection-related stress field changes 3 , 4 . The triggered seismicity could be further constrained to the seal, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Cubic-meter scale laboratory fault re-activation experiments to improve the understanding of induced seismicity risks

Oye

Stanchits

Babarinde

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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To understand fluid induced seismicity, we have designed a large-scale laboratory experiment consisting of a one-cubic-meter sandstone with an artificial fault cut and fluid-injection boreholes. The sandstone block is assembled in a true triaxial loading frame and equipped with 38 piezoelectric sensors to locate and characterise acoustic emission events. The differential stress on the artificial fault is increased in stages to bring it towards a critically stressed state. After each stage of differential stress increase, fluids are injected at low pressures through boreholes to test the potential of fault re-activation. In addition, a high-pressure injection was conducted that created a hydraulic fracture from the injection borehole towards the artificial fault. The newly generated fluid pathway resulted in an activation of the complete block through a stick–slip movement. We compare acoustic emission measurements from the laboratory experiment with seismicity observations from the field-scale CO2 injection at Decatur, Illinois, U.S., and conclude that the existence of fluid pathways plays a decisive role for the potential of induced seismicity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Cubic-meter scale laboratory fault re-activation experiments to improve the understanding of induced seismicity risks

Oye

Stanchits

Babarinde

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…The geological storage of carbon dioxide has been proposed as a means to slow human-induced climate change. Several sites have been devoted to the underground sequestration of carbon dioxide at a variety of scales, from smaller volumes for research purposes as at Ketzin in Germany (Ivanova et al, 2012) and Otway in Australia (Pevzner et al, 2017) to large industrial scale commercial enterprises storing millions of tonnes, such as at Sleipner in Norway (Chadwick et al, 2014;Eiken, 2019) and In Salah in Algeria (Ringrose et al, 2013;Vasco et al, 2018). Currently, economic considerations favor geological storage that is associated with enhanced oil recovery (EOR), involving the injection of carbon dioxide into existing oil and gas reservoirs, such as at the Weyburn CO 2 flood in Canada (White et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Seismic Response to Injected Carbon Dioxide: Comparing Observations to Estimates Based Upon Fluid Flow Modeling

et al. 2019

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Time-lapse seismic amplitude differences and travel time shifts, obtained while monitoring enhanced oil recovery at Cranfield, Mississippi, reveal coherent changes that are associated with the injection of carbon dioxide. Rock physics modeling highlights the importance of the oil, brine, and gas content of pore fluids prior to the injection of carbon dioxide. For example, compressional velocity changes due to the injection of carbon dioxide can drop from 300 m/s to less than 100 m/s as the percentage of oil increases from 1% to 50%. Predictions based upon a new technique for modeling wave propagation in a poroelastic medium containing an arbitrary number of fluids, coupled with multicomponent numerical reservoir modeling at Cranfield, reproduce the general pattern of observed seismic amplitude changes and travel time shifts. In particular, time-lapse amplitude changes suggest a significant and widespread lowering of compressional velocities due to the injection of CO 2 into an aquifer bounding the oil rim of the reservoir. It appears that the large-scale variations in preexisting pore fluid content have a major influence on seismic velocity changes, even in the highly heterogeneous reservoir at Cranfield.

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“…Deformations of the surface can be due to mechanisms other than leakage. 22,81,82 Large changes in the fault permeability amplify the deformation effects we observe here, which is on the order of a few centimeters. Smaller values are likely to be observed in practice.…”

Section: Effect Of Leakage and Fault Dip On Ground Deformationmentioning

confidence: 55%

Quantification of fault leakage dynamics based on leakage magnitude and dip angle

Meguerdijian

Jha

2021

Num Anal Meth Geomechanics

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Subsurface leakage of fluids, such as CO 2 , along faults is a key quantity to estimate when modeling underground fluid storage. Using our coupled multiphase flow-geomechanics-fault slip simulator, we quantify leakage dynamics using the fault dip angle and leakage magnitude, a proposed metric of gas leakage. We present novel leakage dynamics of faults to show that leakage is non-trivially coupled to induced seismicity and multiphase flow along faults due to the effect of fault dip. The onset time of induced fault slip, controlled by the initial shearto-effective normal stress ratio on the fault, is a non-monotonic function of the fault dip. The leakage directions of gas and liquid phases are determined by the directions of slip propagation and the buoyancy vector, both of which depend on the dip. A consequence is that leakage evolution is non-monotonic in time for hanging wall injection-induced seismicity on a normal fault because of the competition between up-dip oriented buoyancy and down-dip oriented induced slip. With respect to monitoring, we note that subsidence at the location of an injection well could be indicative of leakage. K E Y W O R D Sfault leakage, induced seismicity, underground gas storage INTRODUCTIONInjection and storage of fluids in underground aquifers is important for many industrial applications. Natural gas is stored underground during summer months and produced during winter months to meet the seasonal demand of heating gas. 1,2 Radioactive waste 3,4 and wastewater 5-8 are candidates for injection underground for long-term disposal. CO 2 is injected underground as part of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery projects. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Underground storage is also a naturally occurring process for example, during creation of petroleum reservoirs in structural traps. 17 Injection-induced stresses can cause ground deformation [18][19][20][21][22][23] and induce shear and tensile failures along faults and fractures, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] which are ubiquitous in the subsurface. Fault slip is often associated with changes in permeability that can lead to flow of stored fluids up-dip or down-dip along a fault and consequently leakage into shallower or deeper formations, respectively. 4,[31][32][33][34] Leakage can cause contamination of underground sources of drinking water 35,36 and pose health and environmental risks on the ground surface. 37 In case of CO 2 storage, unless below a leakage limit, 38 even a small leakage flux can result into a significant loss of volume over the hundred-year time scale of such projects. Such concerns have fueled research in monitoring of leakage via various means for example, geochemical, 39,40 hydrological, 20,41-43 geophysical, 44,45 electrical, [45][46][47] and isotopic. 48,49

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Monitoring and Modeling Caprock Integrity at the In Salah Carbon Dioxide Storage Site, Algeria

Cited by 16 publications

References 40 publications

Cubic-meter scale laboratory fault re-activation experiments to improve the understanding of induced seismicity risks

Cubic-meter scale laboratory fault re-activation experiments to improve the understanding of induced seismicity risks

The Seismic Response to Injected Carbon Dioxide: Comparing Observations to Estimates Based Upon Fluid Flow Modeling

Quantification of fault leakage dynamics based on leakage magnitude and dip angle

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