A Sea Floor Gravity Survey of the Sleipner Field to Monitor CO2 Migration
Abstract
Carbon dioxide gas (CO{sub 2}) is a byproduct of many wells that produce natural gas. Frequently the CO{sub 2} separated from the valuable fossil fuel gas is released into the atmosphere. This adds to the growing problem of the climatic consequences of greenhouse gas contamination. In the Sleipner North Sea natural gas production facility, the separated CO{sub 2} is injected into an underground saline aquifer to be forever sequestered. Monitoring the fate of such sequestered material is important - and difficult. Local change in Earth's gravity field over the injected gas is one way to detect the CO{sub 2} and track its migration within the reservoir over time. The density of the injected gas is less than that of the brine that becomes displaced from the pore space of the formation, leading to slight but detectable decrease in gravity observed on the seafloor above the reservoir. Using equipment developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, we have been monitoring gravity over the Sleipner CO{sub 2} sequestration reservoir since 2002. We surveyed the field in 2009 in a project jointly funded by a consortium of European oil and gas companies and the US Department of Energy. The value of gravity at somemore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1038534
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0000100
- Resource Type:
- Technical Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 03 NATURAL GAS; BENCHMARKS; BRINES; CARBON DIOXIDE; CONTAMINATION; FLOORS; FOSSIL FUELS; GRAVITY SURVEYS; GREENHOUSE GASES; METERS; MONITORING; MONITORS; NATURAL GAS; NORTH SEA; OCEANOGRAPHY; PRODUCTION; SALINE AQUIFERS; SEAS; SEISMIC SURVEYS
Citation Formats
Zumberge, Mark. A Sea Floor Gravity Survey of the Sleipner Field to Monitor CO2 Migration. United States: N. p., 2011.
Web. doi:10.2172/1038534.
Zumberge, Mark. A Sea Floor Gravity Survey of the Sleipner Field to Monitor CO2 Migration. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1038534
Zumberge, Mark. 2011.
"A Sea Floor Gravity Survey of the Sleipner Field to Monitor CO2 Migration". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1038534. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1038534.
@article{osti_1038534,
title = {A Sea Floor Gravity Survey of the Sleipner Field to Monitor CO2 Migration},
author = {Zumberge, Mark},
abstractNote = {Carbon dioxide gas (CO{sub 2}) is a byproduct of many wells that produce natural gas. Frequently the CO{sub 2} separated from the valuable fossil fuel gas is released into the atmosphere. This adds to the growing problem of the climatic consequences of greenhouse gas contamination. In the Sleipner North Sea natural gas production facility, the separated CO{sub 2} is injected into an underground saline aquifer to be forever sequestered. Monitoring the fate of such sequestered material is important - and difficult. Local change in Earth's gravity field over the injected gas is one way to detect the CO{sub 2} and track its migration within the reservoir over time. The density of the injected gas is less than that of the brine that becomes displaced from the pore space of the formation, leading to slight but detectable decrease in gravity observed on the seafloor above the reservoir. Using equipment developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, we have been monitoring gravity over the Sleipner CO{sub 2} sequestration reservoir since 2002. We surveyed the field in 2009 in a project jointly funded by a consortium of European oil and gas companies and the US Department of Energy. The value of gravity at some 30 benchmarks on the seafloor, emplaced at the beginning of the monitoring project, was observed in a week-long survey with a remotely operated vehicle. Three gravity meters were deployed on the benchmarks multiple times in a campaign-style survey, and the measured gravity values compared to those collected in earlier surveys. A clear signature in the map of gravity differences is well correlated with repeated seismic surveys.},
doi = {10.2172/1038534},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1038534},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2011},
month = {Fri Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2011}
}