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Evaluating offshore legacy wells for geologic carbon storage: A case study from the Galveston and Brazos areas in the Gulf of Mexico

Journal Article · · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3]
  1. National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  2. National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Albany, OR (United States)
  3. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Spring, TX (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

In this article, federal offshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico are of interest for large-scale geologic carbon storage (GCS). However, more than 80,000 offshore oil and gas wells exist in the region, which could impact the integrity of sealing intervals. In this study, we propose a screening methodology for ranking offshore legacy wells based on the challenge they may present to GCS. The methodology relies on the review of well regulatory records to 1) identify leakage pathways and assess the potential hazards that wells pose to planned GCS operations, 2) evaluate well features that impact the accessibility of wells to determine the feasibility of potential corrective actions, and 3) rank wells based on the overall challenge they may pose for GCS. We demonstrate our framework by evaluating the construction and abandonment of 156 wells across eight areas of interest (AOIs) in shallow federal waters along the Texas Gulf Coast. The majority (99.3 %) of wells considered were constructed and plugged in a manner that did not isolate prospective GCS targets in the Upper and Lower Miocene formations and may potentially require a challenging or uncertain corrective action prior to GCS. Dataset trends suggest that the observed well construction and plugging designs may be common in shallow offshore federal waters along the Texas Gulf Coast. Consequently, operators pursuing offshore GCS projects in the region may consider selecting areas that avoid challenging wells or performing robust evaluations of legacy well leakage risks to plan corrective action prior to CO2 injection.

Research Organization:
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)
OSTI ID:
2476522
Report Number(s):
DOE/NETL--2024/4441
Journal Information:
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Journal Name: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control Vol. 139; ISSN 1750-5836
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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58 GEOSCIENCES
Carbon capture and storage
Geologic carbon storage
Legacy wells
Offshore
Well abandonment