Characterization of Pliocene and Miocene Formations in the Wilmington Graben, Offshore Los Angeles, for Large-Scale Geologic Storage of CO₂
Abstract
Geomechanics Technologies has completed a detailed characterization study of the Wilmington Graben offshore Southern California area for large-scale CO₂ storage. This effort has included: an evaluation of existing wells in both State and Federal waters, field acquisition of about 175 km (109 mi) of new seismic data, new well drilling, development of integrated 3D geologic, geomechanics, and fluid flow models for the area. The geologic analysis indicates that more than 796 MMt of storage capacity is available within the Pliocene and Miocene formations in the Graben for midrange geologic estimates (P50). Geomechanical analyses indicate that injection can be conducted without significant risk for surface deformation, induced stresses or fault activation. Numerical analysis of fluid migration indicates that injection into the Pliocene Formation at depths of 1525 m (5000 ft) would lead to undesirable vertical migration of the CO₂ plume. Recent well drilling however, indicates that deeper sand is present at depths exceeding 2135 m (7000 ft), which could be viable for large volume storage. For vertical containment, injection would need to be limited to about 250,000 metric tons per year per well, would need to be placed at depths greater than 7000ft, and would need to be placed in newmore »
- Authors:
-
- Geomechanics Technologies, Incorporated, Monrovia, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Geomechanics Technologies, Incorporated, Monrovia, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1182545
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0001922
- Resource Type:
- Technical Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Bruno, Michael. Characterization of Pliocene and Miocene Formations in the Wilmington Graben, Offshore Los Angeles, for Large-Scale Geologic Storage of CO₂. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.2172/1182545.
Bruno, Michael. Characterization of Pliocene and Miocene Formations in the Wilmington Graben, Offshore Los Angeles, for Large-Scale Geologic Storage of CO₂. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1182545
Bruno, Michael. 2014.
"Characterization of Pliocene and Miocene Formations in the Wilmington Graben, Offshore Los Angeles, for Large-Scale Geologic Storage of CO₂". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1182545. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1182545.
@article{osti_1182545,
title = {Characterization of Pliocene and Miocene Formations in the Wilmington Graben, Offshore Los Angeles, for Large-Scale Geologic Storage of CO₂},
author = {Bruno, Michael},
abstractNote = {Geomechanics Technologies has completed a detailed characterization study of the Wilmington Graben offshore Southern California area for large-scale CO₂ storage. This effort has included: an evaluation of existing wells in both State and Federal waters, field acquisition of about 175 km (109 mi) of new seismic data, new well drilling, development of integrated 3D geologic, geomechanics, and fluid flow models for the area. The geologic analysis indicates that more than 796 MMt of storage capacity is available within the Pliocene and Miocene formations in the Graben for midrange geologic estimates (P50). Geomechanical analyses indicate that injection can be conducted without significant risk for surface deformation, induced stresses or fault activation. Numerical analysis of fluid migration indicates that injection into the Pliocene Formation at depths of 1525 m (5000 ft) would lead to undesirable vertical migration of the CO₂ plume. Recent well drilling however, indicates that deeper sand is present at depths exceeding 2135 m (7000 ft), which could be viable for large volume storage. For vertical containment, injection would need to be limited to about 250,000 metric tons per year per well, would need to be placed at depths greater than 7000ft, and would need to be placed in new wells located at least 1 mile from any existing offset wells. As a practical matter, this would likely limit storage operations in the Wilmington Graben to about 1 million tons per year or less. A quantitative risk analysis for the Wilmington Graben indicate that such large scale CO₂ storage in the area would represent higher risk than other similar size projects in the US and overseas.},
doi = {10.2172/1182545},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1182545},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}