Assessment of the Available Drawdowns for Oil Storage Caverns at the Big Hill SPR Site - Cavern Integrity
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
This report updates the estimated values of the baseline available drawdowns for the caverns at the Big Hill storage facility, and an updated table listing the available drawdowns. A new finite element numerical analysis model was constructed that consists of a realistic mesh capturing the sonar-measured geometries of Big Hill SPR site and used the daily data of actual wellhead pressures and oil-brine interfaces. The number of available drawdowns for each of the Big Hill SPR caverns is estimated using the new model. All caverns are predicted to have five available drawdowns remaining from a geomechanical perspective. BC-101, 105, and 110 have a region of concern at the floor edge and/or sloping floor, where tensile and dilatant stresses are predicted to occur during each workover. The tensile state is predicted to occur because of the geometries of the edge and floor. Therefore, geomechanical examination for three caverns would be recommended after a drawdown leach. The well integrity of each cavern is not investigated in this report. The estimate of the number of baseline available drawdowns for the Big Hill caverns in this report will be incorporated in future assessments of the available drawdowns for all the SPR caverns. The estimates for the number of baseline available drawdowns are subject to change in the future as the knowledge of physical phenomena at the sites, and the further development of the models of geomechanical behavior at the sites, evolve over time.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525
- OSTI ID:
- 1762665
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--2019-7005; 676641
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Assessment of the Available Drawdowns for Oil Storage Caverns at the West Hackberry SPR Site
Assessment of the Available Drawdowns for Oil Storage Caverns at the West Hackberry SPR Site