Feasibility of using in situ deformation to monitor CO₂ storage

Journal Article · Sat Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2019 · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2019.102853· OSTI ID:1729872

Murdoch, Lawrence ^[1]; Germanovich, Leonid ^[1]; DeWolf, Scott ^[1]; Moysey, Stephen ^[1]; Hanna, Alexander C. ^[2]; Kim, Sihyun ^[3]; Duncan, Roger G. ^[4]

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1. Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
2. Clemson Univ., SC (United States); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
3. Bradley Univ., Peoria, IL (United States)
4. Baker Hughes, Houston, TX (United States)

Deformation during CO₂ injection can lead to problems, like seismicity or fluid leaks, but small strains have the potential to be a useful signal for monitoring. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the possible evolution of the strain field during injection, and then assess existing and emerging techniques for measuring the strain field. Poroelastic analyses show that normal strains caused by injection into a reservoir are tensile in the vicinity of the well, but everywhere else at least one strain component is compressive. The vertical strain is compressive in the confining unit, and the radial strain decreases and changes sign from tensile to compressive with distance from the well. Tilting is away from the injection well at the ground surface, but it is towards the well overlying the reservoir. Methods for measuring in-situ strain include instruments that are grouted in the annulus between casing and wall rock (~ 0.1 microstrain resolution), portable strain sensors that are temporarily clamped to the borehole wall (~0.01 microstrain resolution), and strainmeters that are grouted in place (~0.001 microstrain resolution). Instruments for measuring in-situ normal strains at the magnitudes and rates expected during injection are emerging, but they have yet to be fully evaluated in applications related to CO₂ storage. Finally, in-situ strain data measured with emerging instruments promises to fill an important gap between the episodes of fast strain rates measured by seismic data, and the slow strains measured over relatively long periods of time by InSAR and GPS.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830; FE0023313; FE0004542; EAR 0944315
• OSTI ID: 1729872
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1694238
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-151345
• Journal Information: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 93; ISSN 1750-5836
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
strain
instrumentation
deformation
monitoring
injection
carbon storage