Henry R. Westrich¹, Carlos Jove-Colon¹, John Lorenz¹, Norman Warpinski¹, Rajesh Pawar², Dongxiao Zhang², Reid Grigg³, Bruce Stubbs⁴, David Martin⁵

(1) Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
(2) Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
(3) New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM
(4) Pecos Petroleum Engineering, Roswell, NM
(5) Strata Production Company, Roswell, NM

ABSTRACT: Sequestration of CO2 in a Depleted Oil Reservoir

Sequestration of CO2 in depleted oil reservoirs is one of several possible carbon management strategies. The main goals of our DOE/NETL project are to better understand, predict and monitor the migration and ultimate fate of injected CO2 in an oil reservoir through a field demonstration experiment at a site in southeastern New Mexico. Advanced modeling and flow simulation techniques were used to develop a geologic model of the site and to verify the feasibility of CO2 injection into that reservoir. The results of these simulations will be used to decide on wellhead injection conditions, to guide selection of geophysical survey parameters and to bound test conditions for lab experiments using core samples. A suite of modern geophysical characterization techniques will be used to monitor the advancing CO2 plume both during and after injection. The field data will provide a unique opportunity to test, refine and calibrate the computer model(s) that simulate those subsurface interactions. The laboratory experiments will measure changes in reservoir formation properties and chemical reactions with CO2 flooding. Iteration of modeling, laboratory and field data will improve simulation tools and provide higher quality input data for those models. Ultimately, these results will be used to predict storage capacity and physical and chemical changes in reservoir properties, such as fluid composition, porosity, permeability, and phase relations. Science or technology gaps related to engineering aspects of CO2 sequestration would be identified in the course of this study.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90906©2001 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado