Monitoring Conformance and Containment for Geological Carbon Storage: Can Technology Meet Policy and Public Requirements?

Abstract:

The Province of Alberta, Canada identified carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a key element of its 2008 Climate Change strategy. The target is a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 139 Mt/year by 2050. To encourage uptake of CCS by industry, the province has provided partial funding to two demonstration scale projects, namely the Quest Project by Shell and partners (CCS), and the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Project (pipeline and CO2-EOR). Important to commercial scale implementation of CCS will be the requirement to prove conformance and containment of the CO₂ plume injected during the lifetime of the CCS project. This will be a challenge for monitoring programs. The Containment and Monitoring Institute (CaMI) is developing a Field Research Station (FRS) to calibrate various monitoring technologies for CO₂ detection thresholds at relatively shallow depths. The objective being assessed with the FRS is sensitivity for early detection of loss of containment from a deeper CO₂ storage project. In this project, two injection wells will be drilled to sandstone reservoir targets at depths of 300 m and 700 m. Up to four observation wells will be drilled with monitoring instruments installed. Time-lapse surface and borehole monitoring surveys will be undertaken to evaluate the movement and fate of the CO₂ plume. These will include seismic, microseismic, cross well, electrical resistivity, electromagnetic, gravity, geodetic and geomechanical surveys. Initial baseline seismic data from the FRS will presented.