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Fundamental Effects of CO2 on Rock Properties

  • Budsjett
    12 millioner
  • Climit-finansiering
    80 % from the Research Council, 20 % from industrial partners
  • Prosjektnummer
    215712
  • Partnere
    The project has the same industry partners as FME BIGCCS: ConocoPhillips, Gassco, GDF Suez, Shell, Statoil, Total Research partners taking part in the research: BGS, GEUS, NTNU, and SINTEF Petroleum Research Project responsible: SINTEF Petroleum Research
  •  
  • Prosjektperiode
    2012 – 2014

The main objective of this project is to provide better understanding of the fundamental effects of CO2 injection on geomechanical and sealing properties of the storage reservoir rock and caprock.

Two main areas are investigated:
1. Near-well stress changes affecting CO2 injectivity
2. Flow and wetting properties of partly sealing rock

Tri-axial experiments on sandstone plugs, cement and casing plus numerical simulations will shed light on the risk of damage to the near-well region. The possible causes to be investigated include operational variations in bottom-hole pressure and thermal stress injecting cold CO2. Dialogue is established with the Matmora2 project (project no. 215641) in which related scenarios will be simulated.

Flow of CO2 through a partly-sealing barrier or caprock depends on permeability and capillary threshold pressure. The latter is strongly related to the wetting condition of the rock. Therefore, laboratory experiments are conducted to investigate possible wettability alterations of relevant rocks at the pore scale, due to exposure to CO2 and brine at relevant pressures and temperatures. Changes towards higher CO2 wettability would increase the tendency for gradual flow of CO2, thus reducing the sealing capacity of the barrier. An NTNU post doc student has completed one and a half year of a two-years post doc position, focusing on experimental work related to sealing characteristics. She had to leave the project as of May 1st, 2014 and will be replaced for the remaining 6 months by a PhD student (having his PhD defence in September, but already submitted the thesis).

Other work in the project addresses possible reactivation of faults caused by pressure increase in the storage reservoir upon injection of CO2. Also, the effect of thin sealing layers of mudstone and clay on the flow of CO2 is investigated in fine-scale 2D simulation models.

The project is organised as an integrated part of the CO2 storage sub project in FME BIGCCS and interacts in particular with the activity on well integrity.