Benchmarking of vertically-integrated CO2 flow simulations at the Sleipner Field, North Sea

Cowton, L. R.; Neufeld, Jerome A.; White, Nicholas J.; Bickle, M. J.; Williams, Geoffrey Lee; White, J.C.; Chadwick, R. A.

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.03.038

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Most frequently studies invoke the existence of a high permeability channel or fracture, aligned with the flow direction (G. Williams et al, 2018;Cowton et al, 2018;Ringrose et al, 2013;Dance et al, 2019). When combined with varying caprock topography, this can place a leading order control on the migration pathway (Gasda et al, 2013;Nilsen et al, 2017;Cowton et al, 2018). Thermal effects and the uncertainty in the fluids' thermophysical properties (including contamination) have also been suggested as an underlying cause (G. A.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-scale capillary heterogeneity linked to rapid plume migration during CO2 storage

Jackson¹,

Krevor²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Unpredicted, rapid plume elongation has been observed at subsurface CO2 storage projects worldwide, exemplified by the Sleipner project. We show that conventionally ignored centimetre-metre scale heterogeneity in capillary pressure characteristics can manifest as rapid field-scale, decametre-kilometre, plume migration. We analyse the effect in the Goldeneye Field, UK, a proposed storage site with a unique combination of sample/data accessibility and generality as an archetype sandstone reservoir. We overcome previous barriers by characterising in greater detail over larger scales - the 65m reservoir height at cm-m resolution - and through use of an upscaling scheme which resolves small-scale heterogeneity impacts in field-scale simulations. These models reveal that significant early time retardation of buoyantly rising CO2 plumes is followed by rapid migration under the caprock in the presence of anisotropic, layered heterogeneities. Lateral migration speeds can be enhanced by 200%, placing first order controls on fluid flow and providing a mechanistic explanation for field observations.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-scale capillary heterogeneity linked to rapid plume migration during CO2 storage

Jackson¹,

Krevor²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(2017) and Cowton et al. (2018). For the Sleipner project, the length of the horizontal well is taken from EPA (2010), while for the In Salah project, only the injection well KB-501 is considered with length 1 km (Petropoulos & Srivastava 2016).…”

Section: Schematic Regime Diagram and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…CO2 geological sequestration projects at Sleipner and In Salah. The geophysical and two-phase flow data are taken from Bennion & Bachu (2005), Golding et al (2011), Guo et al (2016a), Yu et al (2017) and Cowton et al (2018). For the Sleipner project, the length of the horizontal well is taken from EPA (2010), while for the In Salah project, only the injection well KB-501 is considered with length 1 km (Petropoulos & Srivastava 2016).…”

Section: Universal Shape Rarefaction (R)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-similar dynamics of two-phase flows injected into a confined porous layer

Zheng

Neufeld

2019

J. Fluid Mech.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We study the dynamics of two-phase flows injected into a confined porous layer. A model is derived to describe the evolution of the fluid–fluid interface, where the effective saturation of the injected fluid is zero. The flow is driven by pressure gradients due to injection, the buoyancy due to density contrasts and the interfacial tension between the injected and ambient fluids. The saturation field is then computed after the interface evolution is obtained. The results demonstrate that the flow behaviour evolves from early-time unconfined to late-time confined behaviours. In particular, at early times, the influence of capillary forces drives fluid flow and produces a new self-similar spreading behaviour in the unconfined limit that is distinct from the gravity current solution. At late times, we obtain two new similarity solutions, a modified shock solution and a compound wave solution, in addition to the rarefaction and shock solutions in the sharp-interface limit. A schematic regime diagram is also provided, which summarises all possible similarity solutions and the time transitions between them for the partially saturating flows resulting from fluid injection into a confined porous layer. Three dimensionless control parameters are identified and their influence on the fluid flow is also discussed, including the viscosity ratio, the pore-size distribution and the relative contributions of capillary and buoyancy forces. To underline the relevance of our results, we also briefly describe the implications of the two-phase flow model to the geological storage of $\text{CO}_{2}$, using representative geological parameters from the Sleipner and In Salah sites.

show abstract

“…Zhu et al 2015) has shown that replicating its rapid northward flow (Figure 3d) with homogeneous reservoir sand properties is very challenging. But recent publications (Williams & Chadwick 2017;Cowton et al 2018) have presented compelling evidence from the baseline seismic data of a north-south trending depositional channel. Including this as a high permeability feature in the flow models greatly improves the ease of obtaining a good history-match.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic Mapping Of Spatial Velocity Heterogeneity In A CO2 Layer At Sleipner Using Time-Lapse 3D Seismic Monitoring

Chadwick¹,

Williams²

2018

Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Sleipner injection operation has stored over 17 Mt of CO2. Time-lapse seismic monitoring has provided high resolution images of CO2 plume development, constraining and verifying numerical flow simulations. Seismic velocity is a key diagnostic parameter for CO2 layer properties and we adopt a forensic interpretative approach to determine velocity variation in the topmost layer of the plume. The 2010 seismic dataset enables, for the first time, temporal thicknesses of the layer to be determined, taking into account interference-induced time-shifts. Combining these with CO2 layer thicknesses determined from structural analysis of the topseal topography allows layer velocity to be mapped. A marked spatial variation in velocity is evident across the layer with higher velocities (1630±103 ms-1) in the central part of the layer contrasting with lower values (~1370± 122 ms-1) to the north. Recent published work has identified a north-trending channel in the topmost Utsira sand unit, which greatly improves history-matching of the topmost CO2 layer with numerical flow simulations. This channel correlates almost exactly with the low velocity area mapped from the seismic, the higher velocity area corresponding to less permeable overbank deposits. The seismic therefore provides key corroborative evidence of permeability heterogeneity within the reservoir sand.

show abstract

Benchmarking of vertically-integrated CO2 flow simulations at the Sleipner Field, North Sea

Cited by 29 publications

References 46 publications

Small-scale capillary heterogeneity linked to rapid plume migration during CO2 storage

Small-scale capillary heterogeneity linked to rapid plume migration during CO2 storage

Self-similar dynamics of two-phase flows injected into a confined porous layer

Forensic Mapping Of Spatial Velocity Heterogeneity In A CO2 Layer At Sleipner Using Time-Lapse 3D Seismic Monitoring

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About