Tracing the movement and the fate of injected CO2 at the IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage project (Saskatchewan, Canada) using carbon isotope ratios

Mayer, Bernhard; Shevalier, Maurice; Nightingale, Michael; Kwon, Jang-Soon; Johnson, Gareth; Raistrick, Mark; Hutcheon, Ian; Perkins, Ernie

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.035

Cited by 45 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These methods often cover large areas in low resolution, making it difficult to identify exact sources of emissions. Groundbased techniques, including infrared camera leak inspections , well injection tracers (Mayer et al, 2013), and soil gas sampling (Beaubien et al, 2011;Romanak et al, 2012), are often too labour intensive to be convenient for use in large oil and gas developments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

et al. 2017

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Abstract. North American leaders recently committed to reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, but information on current emissions from upstream oil and gas developments in Canada are lacking. This study examined the occurrence of methane plumes in an area of unconventional natural gas development in northwestern Canada. In August to September 2015 we completed almost 8000 km of vehicle-based survey campaigns on public roads dissecting oil and gas infrastructure, such as well pads and processing facilities. We surveyed six routes 3-6 times each, which brought us past over 1600 unique well pads and facilities managed by more than 50 different operators. To attribute onroad plumes to oil-and gas-related sources we used gas signatures of residual excess concentrations (anomalies above background) less than 500 m downwind from potential oil and gas emission sources. All results represent emissions greater than our minimum detection limit of 0.59 g s −1 at our average detection distance (319 m). Unlike many other oil and gas developments in the US for which methane measurements have been reported recently, the methane concentrations we measured were close to normal atmospheric levels, except inside natural gas plumes. Roughly 47 % of active wells emitted methane-rich plumes above our minimum detection limit. Multiple sites that pre-date the recent unconventional natural gas development were found to be emitting, and we observed that the majority of these older wells were associated with emissions on all survey repeats. We also observed emissions from gas processing facilities that were highly repeatable. Emission patterns in this area were best explained by infrastructure age and type. Extrapolating our results across all oil and gas infrastructure in the Montney area, we estimate that the emission sources we located (emitting at a rate > 0.59 g s −1 ) contribute more than 111 800 t of methane annually to the atmosphere. This value exceeds reported bottom-up estimates of 78 000 t of methane for all oil and gas sector sources in British Columbia. Current bottomup methods for estimating methane emissions do not normally calculate the fraction of emitting oil and gas infrastructure with thorough on-ground measurements. However, this study demonstrates that mobile surveys could provide a more accurate representation of the number of emission sources in an oil and gas development. This study presents the first mobile collection of methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure in British Columbia, and these results can be used to inform policy development in an era of methane emission reduction efforts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

et al. 2017

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“…As noted in Emberley et al (2005), the variation shown in Fig. 1 is remarkable for such a small area, and further, much of this variation is focused within the Phase 1A area (blue outline; see also similar figure Mayer et al, 2013). This can be compared with a similar contour map constructed using chloride measurements obtained from samples taken immediately prior to the onset of CO 2 EOR (Emberley et al, 2005).…”

Section: Field Observationsmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The geochemical field data set used in this study was collected and analyzed by the Applied Geochemistry group (AGg) of the University of Calgary (Emberley et al, 2005;Mayer et al, 2013;Shevalier et al, 2013). It includes compositional data for gases and waters produced with the recovered oil at many of the wells within the Phase 1A and Phase 1B areas of the Weyburn CO 2 EOR project.…”

Section: Field Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the utility of using stable carbon isotopes to track the arrival of injected CO 2 at producing wells at the Weyburn site is demonstrated in Mayer et al (2013). Injected CO 2 can be tracked by the large contrast between the isotopic composition of the injected gas (␦ 13 C(CO 2 ) = −20.4 ‰) and typical pre-injection reservoir isotopic values which, while different between phases, are all at least 7‰ heavier than the injected gas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geochemical tracers applied to reservoir simulation of the Weyburn CO2 EOR field

Talman

Perkins

Jafari

et al. 2013

International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

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“…These measurements are subsequently corrected via geochemical modelling to down-hole conditions (Kharaka et al, 2006;Lu et al, 2012;Mayer et al, 2013;Shevalier Chemical Geology 391 (2015) et al, 2013). Here we propose an alternative approach to determine in situ pH values of fluids that were exposed to elevated temperatures and pCO 2 levels using stable carbon isotope fractionation (expressed as 10 3 lnα 13 C) data between dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and gaseous CO 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining in situ pH values of pressurised fluids using stable carbon isotope techniques

et al. 2015

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Tracing the movement and the fate of injected CO2 at the IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage project (Saskatchewan, Canada) using carbon isotope ratios

Cited by 45 publications

References 23 publications

Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Geochemical tracers applied to reservoir simulation of the Weyburn CO2 EOR field

Determining in situ pH values of pressurised fluids using stable carbon isotope techniques

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