Downhole data collection equipment for safe storage of CO₂ and more efficient drilling operations

The project’s vision is to be able to offer a new technology and solution to measure minimum horizontal stress in the caprock to enable safe and economical storage of CO₂.

Safe storage: Operators of CO₂ storage projects must assess the expected safety of storage and must acquire an understanding of the characteristics of caprock. A good understanding of caprock can enable higher injection volumes of CO₂ per well and thus reduce storage costs.

Qwave was founded in 2015 and since its inception has conducted research and development of core technology based on acoustic shock waves. The idea is based on using the same principles that are used in medicine to treat kidney stones, a method called Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) where a series of focused acoustic shock waves are generated to break down stones in the kidney/ urinary tract without surgical intervention.

QWave’s idea is that the same principle can be used in well technology to solve several problems in a better way than these problems are solved with today’s available technology. We believe such technology can be used to open rock formations in a well to measure minimum horizontal stress, which is an important data point in understanding the strength of the formation. In collaboration with Harald Eizenhöfer (former research director at Dornier MedTech Systems GmbH, a supplier of ESWL devices in medicine) and Hartlauer Präzisions Elektronik GmbH (manufacturer of power supply units for ESWL equipment in medicine) a prototype has been developed to demonstrate that the technology is possible to transfer from medicine to a downhole equipment for use in drilling operations. A pilot test and demonstration of the technology is planned by the end of 2023 to verify the technology before starting development of a commercial version (2.0).

A Joint Industry Project (JIP) has been established with Equinor Energy AS, Neptune Energy Norge AS, and OMV (Norge) AS. These partners are also possible future customers and have been involved in defining needs from the very beginning. There are many areas of application for the technology, but the industrial partners believe that the greatest need is to develop a new method for carrying out stress tests when drilling wells and that this can solve challenges with testing ‘caprock’ to achieve safe and economical storage of CO₂ in Norwegian plinth.