Subsurface Isopach Maps for CO2 Sequestration: Woodside Field, East-central Utah
Brad G. Bishop, Thomas H. Morris, and Walter A. Harston
Brigham Young University
Geologic sequestration is a geo-engineering solution employed to mitigate the increasing concentration of anthropogenic CO2 gasses in the atmosphere, thus reducing their effect on climate change. Woodside Field, a doubly plunging anticline is identified as the potential injection site for CO2 sequestration. The field is located on the east flank of the San Rafael Swell in east-central Utah. The potential reservoir consists of the Permian White Rim Sandstone and the Black Box Dolomite. The Black Dragon Member of the Triassic Moenkopi Formation will act as the seal for the structural trap. Subsurface mapping of these units was necessary to determine the potential capacity and competence of the reservoir and seal system. Isopach maps of the reservoir units were constructed by correlating scintillometer data from measured outcrops to the subsurface type well log. Stratigraphic and structural representations were created through correlation of the type log to eight additional well logs. The thickness of the White Rim Sandstone varies from 525 ft. at the south end of the anticline to 380 ft. to the north. The Black Box Dolomite is 35 ft. thick on its east flank and thickens to 75 ft. on the west side. The Black Dragon Member is 280 ft. thick approximately at the center of the field and thins to the southeast to 185 ft. Overburden maps were constructed to obtain the formation temperatures and hydrostatic pressures at depth to determine CO2 densities. These maps provide hard data that constrain volumetric calculations of storage and sequestration capacity under a variety of scenarios and assumptions.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90169©2013 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section 62nd Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 22-24, 2013