The CO2CRC Otway Shallow CO2 Controlled Release Experiment: Geological Model and CO2 Migration Simulations

Feitz, Andrew; Radke, Bruce; Hossain, Md Shahadat; Harris, Brett; Schaa, Ralf; Pethick, Andrew; Ziramov, Sasha; Urošević, Milovan; Tenthorey, Eric; Pan, Zhejun; Ennis‐King, Jonathan; Wang, Liuqi; Gunning, Merrie-Ellen; Lai, E.C.S.; Ransley, Tim; Tan, Kok Piang; Schacht, U.; Kalinowski, Aleks; Black, J. Roy; Pevzner, Roman

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3365843

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The ability to reuse existing infrastructure has occurred before in research projects and field trials such as with the Frio Brine I Project [19] and at the CO2CRC Otway Project Stage 1 (Naylor production well, [20]). Both project proponents acknowledge a range of issues relating to the reuse of infrastructure not discussed further here.…”

Section: Issue #7 Harvey-2 Well Preservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons Learned: The First In-Situ Laboratory Fault Injection Test

et al. 2021

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The CSIRO In-Situ Laboratory has been a world first injection of CO2 into a large faulted zone at depth. A total of 38 tonnes of CO2 was injected into the F10 fault zone at approximately 330 m depth and the process monitored in detail. The site uses a well, Harvey-2, in SW Western Australia (the South West Hub CCS Project area). The top 400 m section of Harvey-2 was available for injection and instrumentation. An observation well, ISL OB-1 (400 m depth) was drilled 7 m to the north east of Harvey-2. ISL OB-1 well was cased with fibreglass to provide greater monitoring options. The CSIRO In-Situ Laboratory was designed to integrate existing facilities and infrastructure from the South West Hub CCS Project managed by the West Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. While new equipment was deployed for this specific project, the site facilities were complemented by a range of mobile deployable equipment from the National Geosequestration Laboratory (NGL). The geology of the area investigated poses interesting challenges: a large fault (F10) is estimated to have up to 1000 m throw overall, the presence of packages of paleosols rather than a contiguous mudstone seal, and a 1500 m vertical thickness of Triassic sandstone as the potential commercial storage interval. This unique site provides abundant opportunities for testing more challenging geological environments for carbon storage than at other sites. While details of this first project are described elsewhere, lessons were learned during the development and execution of the project. A rigorous risk register was developed to manage project risk, but not all events encountered were foreseen. This paper describes some of the challenges encountered and the team's response. Relocation of the project site due to changes in landholder ownership) and other sensitivities resulted in the need for rapid replanning of activities at short notice resulting in the development of the site at Harvey-2. The relocation allowed other research questions to be addressed through new activities, such as the ability to consider a shallow/controlled release experiment in an extensive fault zone, but this replanning did cause some timing stress. The first test at the In-Situ Laboratory was reconfigured to address some of those knowledge gaps that shallow/controlled release experiments had yet to address. Novel approaches to drilling and completing the monitoring well also threw up unanticipated difficulties. Loss of containment from the wellbore also posed significant challenges, and the team's response to this unintended release of gas and water from the monitoring well at the

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Section: Issue #7 Harvey-2 Well Preservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons Learned: The First In-Situ Laboratory Fault Injection Test

et al. 2021

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“…Few of these projects put emphasis on detecting CO2 leakage on its migration path between the storage complex and groundwater resources or the atmosphere. Only a few recent projects in Canada [5] and eastern Australia [6], have been investigating the migration behaviour and detectability of gaseous CO2 between 25m to 600m depth. Furthermore, the identification and characterisation of potential leakage processes and pathways are important for developing properly targeted monitoring schemes [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A (not so) shallow controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone

et al. 2021

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The CSIRO In-Situ Laboratory Project (ISL) is located in Western Australia and has two main objectives related to monitoring leaks from a CO2 storage complex by controlled-release experiments: 1) improving the monitorability of gaseous CO2 accumulations at intermediate depth, and 2) assessing the impact of faults on CO2 migration. A first test at the In-situ Lab has evaluated the ability to monitor and detect unwanted leakage of CO2 from a storage complex in a major fault zone. The ISL consists of three instrumented wells up to 400 m deep: 1) Harvey-2 used primarily for gaseous CO2 injection, 2) ISL OB-1, a fibreglass geophysical monitoring well with behind-casing instrumentation, and 3) a shallow (27 m) groundwater well for fluid sampling. A controlled-release test injected 38 tonnes of CO2 between 336-342 m depth in February 2019, and the gas was monitored by a wide range of downhole and surface monitoring technologies. CO2 reached the ISL OB-1 monitoring well (7 m away) after approximately 1.5 days and an injection volume of 5 tonnes. Evidence of arrival was determined by distributed temperature sensing and the CO2 plume was detected also by borehole seismic after injection of as little as 7 tonnes. Observations suggest that the fault zone did not alter the CO2 migration along bedding at the scale and depth of the experiment. No vertical CO2 migration was detected beyond the perforated injection interval; no notable changes were observed in groundwater quality or soil gas chemistry during and post injection.The early detection of significantly less than 38 tonnes of CO2 injected into the shallow subsurface demonstrates rapid and sensitive monitorability of potential leaks in the overburden of a commercial-scale storage project, prior to reaching shallow groundwater, soil zones or the atmosphere. The ISL is a unique and enduring research facility at which monitoring technologies will be further developed and tested for increasing public and regulator confidence in the ability to detect potential CO2 leakage at shallow to intermediate depth.

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“…Previous field tests have focussed on shallow-release experiments performed at less than 25 m depth (Roberts and Stalker, 2017;Roberts et al, 2018) or CO2 storage experiments at more than 600 m depth (Michael et al, 2010 and references therein). However, except for a few recent projects in Canada (Macquet and Lawton, 2019) and eastern Australia (Feitz et al, 2018), experiments investigating the migration behaviour and detectability of gaseous CO2 at intermediate depths between 25 m and 600 m have been lacking. More information for this depth interval would be helpful for improving monitoring schemes of large-scale CO2 storage projects by demonstrating detectability of CO2 leakage before it reaches potable groundwater or the atmosphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone at the In-Situ Laboratory in Western Australia

Michael

Avijegon²,

Ricard

et al. 2020

International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

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A controlled-release test at the In-Situ Laboratory Project in Western Australia injected 38 tonnes of gaseous CO2 between 336-342 m depth in a fault zone, and the gas was monitored by a wide range of downhole and surface monitoring technologies. Injection of CO2 at this depth fills the gap between shallow release (<25 m) and storage (>600 m) field trials. The main objectives of the controlled-release test were to assess the monitorability of shallow CO2 accumulations, and to investigate the impacts of a fault zone on CO2 migration. CO2 arrival was detected by distributed temperature sensing at the monitoring well (7 m away) after approximately 1.5 days and an injection volume of 5 tonnes. The CO2 plume was detected also by borehole seismic and electric resistivity imaging. The detection of significantly less than 38 tonnes of CO2 in the shallow subsurface demonstrates rapid and sensitive monitorability of potential leaks in the overburden of a commercial-scale storage project, prior to reaching shallow groundwater, soil zones or the atmosphere.Observations suggest that the fault zone did not alter the CO2 migration along bedding at the scale and depth of the test. Contrary to model predictions, no vertical CO2 migration was detected beyond the perforated injection interval. CO2 and formation water escaped to the surface through the monitoring well at the end of the experiment due to unexpected damage to the well's fibreglass casing. The well was successfully remediated without impact to the environment and the site is ready for future experiments.

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The CO2CRC Otway Shallow CO2 Controlled Release Experiment: Geological Model and CO2 Migration Simulations

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Lessons Learned: The First In-Situ Laboratory Fault Injection Test

Lessons Learned: The First In-Situ Laboratory Fault Injection Test

A (not so) shallow controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone

A controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone at the In-Situ Laboratory in Western Australia

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