Print this pageAAPG GEO 2010 Middle East
Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
Innovative Geoscience Solutions – Meeting Hydrocarbon Demand in Changing Times
March 7-10, 2010 – Manama, Bahrain
Pathways and Possible Impacts of Accidental CO2 Subsurface-Leak in Sabkha’s Environment, Qatar
(1) Environmental Sciences, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Odessa, TX.
(2) Chemistry & Earth Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
(3) Biology and Environmental Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
In Qatar, the industrial and energy sectors depend mainly on fossil fuels, the main cause of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Though the rate of development is high, the lake of arable land and water resources prevent the development of carbon sinks, forests, and green areas. However, their is no doubt that Qatar share responsibility with the rest of the world for climate change and hence is working to diversify the energy pie and look for more environment-friendly energy sources, and shares responsibility of carbon management. Doha Bank, for example, is planning to launch the Arabian Gulf’s first carbon credits exchange in 2009/ 10 to tap an emerging market for emissions trading. Still Qatar potential for the application of CO2 sequestration technologies is huge knowing that onshore deep saline aquifers of Qatar is as potential large volume carbon dioxide storage sites. Although injection of supercritical CO2 into deep saline aquifers or oil fields is a promising technique for sequestration of large amounts of CO2, but some fraction of the injected CO2 were to leak and reach shallow groundwater aquifers, it would lead to geochemical alterations that could have detrimental effects on the water quality and other adverse impacts. Thus early detection and characterization of potential CO2 leak significantly increases the probability that a timely and efficient solution can be found. The present study presents early results from a joint research between University of Texas and Qatar University on the possible biogeochemical impacts of accidental leak on the shallow ground water and shallow subsurface environment as well as subsurface fate and pathways. For example, in cases of accidental leak, the potential leakage pathways are not necessarily known, but our earlier research indicate that monitoring must be done across a region as large as 100 km2 in the vicinity of a CO2 injection project. If a leak were to happen from a Dukhan oil field well (as an example of one such scenario), this would have an impact on the nearby coastal and/or sabkha environment of Doha, Al-Khor, Al-Wakrah, Umm Sa’id, as well as Salwa areas. The potential for stimulation and enrichment of the growth of existing cyanobacterial mats and algal planktonic blooms, some of which may be toxic, is high. The latter effects have further possible consequences on human health as well as on fisheries in Qatar that are described in this research.