Major CO2 blowouts from offshore wells are strongly attenuated in water deeper than 50&nbsp;m

Oldenburg, Curtis M.; Pan, Lehua

doi:10.1002/ghg.1943

Major CO₂ blowouts from offshore wells are strongly attenuated in water deeper than 50 m

Journal Article · Wed Dec 25 23:00:00 EST 2019 · Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1943· OSTI ID:1582373

^[1]; Pan, Lehua ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy Geosciences Division

Growing interest in offshore geologic carbon sequestration (GCS) motivates evaluation of the consequences of subsea CO₂ well blowouts. Herein, we have simulated a hypothetical major CO₂ well blowout in shallow water of the Texas Gulf Coast. We use a coupled reservoir-well model (T2Well) to simulate the subsea blowout flow rate for input to an integral model (TAMOC) for modeling CO₂ transport in the water column. Bubble sizes are estimated for the blowout scenario for input to TAMOC. Results suggest that a major CO₂ blowout in ≥50 m of water will be almost entirely attenuated by the water column due to CO₂ dissolution into seawater during upward rise. In contrast, the same blowout in 10 m of water will hardly be attenuated at all. Results also show that the size of the orifice of the leak strongly controls the CO₂ blowout rate.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Clean Coal and Carbon (FE-20)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1582373

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1580444

Journal Information:: Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Journal Name: Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 10; ISSN 2152-3878

Publisher:: Society of Chemical Industry, WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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