Key messages from active CO2 storage sites

An extensive programme of modelling, monitoring and verification activities was deployed at a set of active storage sites worldwide including Sleipner, In Salah, Ketzin, Weyburn, K12-B and Snøhvit (EU CO2ReMoVe project). All investigated storage sites were well managed and did not have a negative impact on humans or the environment. Time-lapse...

History matching time-lapse surface-gravity and well-pressure data with ensemble smoother for estimating gas field aquifer support - A 3D numerical study

Water influx is an important factor influencing production of gas reservoirs with an active aquifer. However, aquifer properties such as size, porosity, and permeability are typically uncertain and make predictions of field performance challenging. The observed pressure decline is inherently nonunique with respect to water influx, and large...

Latest time-lapse seismic data from Sleipner yield new insights into CO2 plume development

Since its inception in 1996, the CO2 injection operation at Sleipner has been monitored by 3D time-lapse seismic surveys. Striking images of the CO2 plume have been obtained, showing a multi-tier feature of high reflectivity, interpreted as arising from a number of thin layers of CO2 trapped beneath thin, intra-reservoir mudstones. The topmost...

Review of monitoring issues and technologies associated with the long-term underground storage of carbon dioxide

Large-scale underground storage of CO2 has the potential to play a key role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Typical underground storage reservoirs would lie at depths of 1000 mor more and contain tens or even hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2. A likely regulatory requirement is that storage sites would have to be monitored both...

Ten years' experience of monitoring CO2 injection in the Utsira Sand at Sleipner offshore Norway

Synthetic versus real time-lapse seismic data at the Sleipner CO2 injection site

CO2 has been injected into the Utsira Sand at Sleipner since 1996, with more than 9 million tonnes currently in the reservoir. Seismic monitoring surveys to follow the migration of the CO2 in the reservoir have been carried out in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. The CO2 plume is imaged on the seismic data as a prominent multi-tier feature,...

4D Seismic Imaging of an Injected C02 Plume at the Sleipner Field, Central North Sea

C02 produced at the Sleipner field is being injected into the Utsira Sand, a major saline aquifer. Time-lapse seismic data acquired in 1999, with 2.35 million tonnes of C02 in the reservoir, image the C02, plume as a number of bright sub-horizontal reflections. These are interpreted as tuned responses from thin (< 8 m thick) layers of C02...