T151 Geologic Carbon Storage

Tuesday, 11 October 2022
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Mile High Ballroom 4B

INVESTIGATING THE CO2 SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL OF THE MORROW-B SANDSTONE IN THE FARNSWORTH, TEXAS HYDROCARBON FIELD THROUGH NUMERICAL MODELS AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Paper number: T151-13
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:00 AM – 11:15 AM

Authors

Abstract

The Farnsworth Unit (FWU), a depleted hydrocarbon field in Ochiltree County, Texas, is an ongoing research site of the Southwest Partnership for CO2 Sequestration (SWP). The present study is a part of the SWP research effort and is focused on using numerical reactive transport modeling and batch reaction experiments to evaluate the CO2 sequestration potential of the Morrow B Sandstone reservoir in the western half of the FWU in conjunction with enhanced oil recovery. The numerical models incorporated detailed site-specific reservoir properties and fluid injection histories, accounting for the flow of multi-phase fluids, heat transport, solute transport, and chemical reaction. The models were calibrated against eight years of production data, after which they were used to forecast reservoir behavior to 1000 years. The models predict modest increases in reservoir pressure during the initial 25-year period of injection of water and CO2, after which fluid pressure gradually returns to pre-injection levels. The models predict dissolution by oil to be the largest sink for the injected CO2, followed by dissolution by the formation water, the precipitation of carbonate minerals, and the formation of an immiscible gas phase, respectively. Most of the CO2 sequestration is limited to a radius of within a few hundred meters of the injection wells. CO2 sequestration by carbonate mineral precipitation grows continuously in importance over time, approaching dissolution by water and oil in importance by the end of the 1000-year simulation period. Most of the carbonate mineral precipitation consisted of dolomite, with essentially negligible amounts of ankerite, siderite, and magnesite. Calcite, a native reservoir mineral, was predicted to dissolve throughout the simulations. Concerning other native reservoir minerals, quartz was predicted to precipitate whereas clinochlore was predicted to dissolve, while albite, kaolinite, and illite did not undergo significant changes in abundance. These predicted changes in mineral abundance do not lead to significant changes in reservoir porosity or permeability. Batch reaction experiments involving thin sections of the Morrow B Sandstone immersed in variably CO2-charged formation water are currently underway to test theoretical predictions of changes in mineral abundance.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-380718

© Copyright 2022 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.