Browse > Article

Gravity monitoring of $CO_2$ storage in a depleted gas filed: A sensitivity study  

Sherlock, Don (Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies CSIRO Petroleum)
Toomey, Aoife (Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Hoversten, Mike (Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Gasperikova, Erika (Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Dodds, Kevin (Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies CSIRO Petroleum)
Publication Information
Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration / v.9, no.1, 2006 , pp. 37-43 More about this Journal
Abstract
In 2006, the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) plans to undertake (subject to receiving the necessary approvals) a Pilot program for $CO_2$ storage within a depleted gas reservoir. The Otway Basin Pilot Program (OBPP) aims to demonstrate that subsurface $CO_2$ storage is both economically and environmentally sustainable in Australia. This will be the first $CO_2$ storage program in the world to utilise a depleted gas reservoir and, hence, the experience gained will be a valuable addition to the range of international $CO_2$ storage programs that are underway or being planned. A key component of the OBPP is the design of an appropriate geophysical monitoring strategy that will allow the subsurface migration of the $CO_2$ plume to be tracked and to verify that containment has been successful. This paper presents the results from modelling the predicted gravity response to $CO_2$ injection into the Otway Basin reservoir, where the goal was to determine minimum volumes of $CO_2$ that may be detectable using non-seismic geophysical techniques. Modelling results indicate that gravity measurements at 10 m spacing within the existing observation well and the planned $CO_2$ injection well would provide excellent vertical resolution, even for the smallest $CO_2$ volume modelled (10000 tonnes), but resolving the lateral extent of the plume would not be possible without additional wells at closer spacing.
Keywords
$CO_2$; sequestration; gravity; monitoring and verification;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Popta, J.Y., Heywood, J.M.T., Adams, S.J., and Bostock, D.R., 1990, Use of borehole gravimetry for reservoir characterization and fluid saturation monitoring: Proceedings of the European Petroleum Conference, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Paper 20896,151-160
2 Hoversten, G.M., Grillo, R., Washbourne, J. and Daley, T.M., 2003, Pressure and fluid saturation prediction in a multicomponent reservoir using combined seismic and electromagnetic imaging: Geophysics, 68, 1580-1591   DOI   ScienceOn
3 Pruess, K., Oldenburg, C., and Moridis, G., 1992, TOUGH2 User's Guide, version 2.0: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report, LBNL-43134. [Web document]: Accessed 13 December, 2005. Available at
4 Hare, J.L, Ferguson, J.E, and Aiken, c.L.Y., 1999, The 4-D microgravity method for waterflood surveillance: A model study from the Prudhoe Bay reservoir, Alaska: Geophysics, 64, 78-87   DOI   ScienceOn
5 Lewis, c.A., and Shinn, J., 2001, Global Warming - An oil and gas company perspective: Prospects for geological sequestration: Environmental Geosciences, 8, 177-186   DOI   ScienceOn
6 Christensen, N.B., Sherlock, D.H., and Dodds, K.J., 2006, Monitoring $CO_2$injection with cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography: Exploration Geophysics, 37, (this issue)