A numerical study on the feasibility of evaluating CO₂injection wellbore integrity through casing deformation monitoring

Abstract

Distributed sensing technologies have been increasingly used for downhole monitoring in the oil field in recent years. A casing deformation monitoring system based on distributed strain sensors has been developed and proposed for wellbore integrity monitoring. However, due to the lack of field data on casing deformation induced by various exploration and development activities, the relationship between casing deformation and wellbore integrity remains unclear. To study the feasibility of evaluating short‐term CO2 injection wellbore integrity through casing deformation monitoring, a staged finite element analysis is conducted for an existing well in the Weyburn field to study the relationship between casing deformation and wellbore integrity during CO2 injection. The model is generated with HypermeshTM and the analysis is conducted with AbaqusTM. The staged finite element model applies loads and materials in multiple steps to replicate the actual drilling process. The wellbore stress, casing strain, and interface gap distance change at the surface casing shoe and production casing shoe are calculated. A parametric study is also conducted to study the effect of various parameters on CO2 injection wellbore integrity in the Weyburn field. The result shows that the casing deformation can be correlated to the wellbore integrity by cement expansion/shrinkage through its effect on the interface gap distance change and the stress difference between wellbore components induced by CO2 injection. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wellbore integrity in a saline aquifer: Experimental steel-cement interface degradation under supercritical CO2 conditions representative of Brazil’s Parana basin

“…As long-term CO 2 storage is the objective of CCS projects (Guthrie et al, 2018), it is possible to point out that fluid leakage is the main perceived risk associated with these projects (Iyer et al, 2018;Onishi et al, 2019). In this context, the wellbore integrity is identified as the most critical issue to the CCS infrastructure since it may provide a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103077 Received 10 October 2019; Received in revised form 18 May 2020; Accepted 22 May 2020 pathway for fluid to escape from the subsurface environment to shallow formations or, in the worst scenario, back to the surface (Bagheri et al, 2018;Li and Nygaard, 2018). Thus, preserving the wellbore integrity throughout the project's operational life cycle (construction, injection, monitoring and abandonment) is a key issue for CCS effectiveness (Omosebi et al, 2017;Postma et al, 2019).…”

Fiber Bragg grating‐based experimental and numerical investigations of CO2 migration front in saturated sandstone under subcritical and supercritical conditions

“…The observation and positioning of the CO 2 migration front are also key focuses of researchers. Various technologies have been used in core flooding experiments, such as the carbon isotope ratio analyzer, X‐ray CT scanning, distributed acoustic sensing, magnetic resonance imaging, seismic tomography, acoustic emission, and distributed optical fiber sensing technology . In summary, there is still lack of research work on monitoring the changes in stress field in laboratory CO 2 core flooding experiments, especially when the state of CO 2 changes under different pressure and temperature (P‐T) conditions.…”