CO2 Injection Monitoring using an Experimental Modular Borehole Monitoring (MBM) System

Koperna, George J.; Trautz, Robert; Daley, Thomas M.; Freifeld, Barry M.; Dodds, Kevin

The U.S. Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB) Anthropogenic Test is a demonstration of CO2 capture from a coal-fired power plant, transport, geologic storage and monitoring technologies. Starting in August 2012, up to 550 metric tons of CO2 have been captured and injected underground per day. Operations will continue for two years and monitoring will be deployed through 2017. One of the goals of the project is to test experimental monitoring technologies and, as part of this effort, the project team installed an innovative tubing deployed modular borehole monitoring (MBM) system designed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and supported by CO2 Capture Project (CCP) as a field trial project. The MBM was designed with the aim of deploying a robust flexible monitoring package that maximizes the data collected in a single-well monitoring system while minimizing installation risks. This system includes U-tube reservoir fluid sampler, heat-pulse cable with fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor (DTS), a geophone array for borehole seismic acquisition and discrete downhole pressure/temperature sensors at the level of the storage reservoir. The MBM system was installed in the project's monitoring well in March 2012 and all of the components were tested and baseline measurements were performed prior to the onset of CO2 injection. This baseline effort included the acquisition and characterization of reservoir fluid samples, testing of the heat-pulse/DTS system, a continuous record of reservoir pressure and the acquisition of baseline vertical seismic profiles using the borehole geophone array. This paper will present the results of the baseline and injection-phase monitoring efforts to date using the MBM.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90163©2013AAPG 2013 Annual Convention and Exhibition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 19-22, 2013