Pressure Induced Deformation and Flow Using CO2 Field Analogues, Utah

Experimental Investigation of Natural Fracture Stiffness and Flow Properties in a Faulted CO2Bypass System (Utah, USA)

“…Migration of CO 2 ‐ and/or CH 4 ‐rich groundwaters causes bleaching (i.e., reduction of Fe (III) and/or dissolution of Fe‐oxides) of aeolian sandstone (reservoir) and siltstone (seal) layers that were originally stained red by hematite or goethite (e.g., Beitler et al, 2005; Chan et al, 2000; Eichhubl et al, 2009; Garden et al, 2001; Wigley et al, 2012). Bleaching patterns are easily observed in the field and allow for identification of relict fluid pathways related to faults and fracture corridors (Ogata et al, 2014; Skurtveit et al, 2017; Sundal et al, 2017).…”

Uncertainty in fault seal parameters: implications for CO<sub>2</sub> column height retention and storage capacity in geological CO<sub>2</sub> storage projects

“…In clay-poor sequences (i.e. clean sandstones with less than 15 % clay), the dominant fault rock types are disaggregation zones and cataclasites (Fisher and Knipe, 1998;Sperrevik et al, 2002). Disaggregation zones form during fault slip at low confining stress during early burial and constitute grain reorganization without grain fracturing.…”

“…It has, however, been successfully used during the last 2 decades to predict hydrocarbon fault seals in the subsurface (Manzocchi et al, 2010;Yielding, 2012). Two different approaches to link SGR and fault rock composition estimation with fault seal prediction parameters such as capillary threshold pressure have been developed over the years: (1) using known sealing faults to constrain relationships between SGR and HC column height and/or across fault pressure differences (Bretan et al, 2003;Yielding et al, 2010) and (2) measuring the capillary threshold pressures and clay content of micro-faults and correlating these with SGR, assuming that SGR is equivalent to the clay content of the fault rock (Sperrevik et al, 2002). The first approach has been fine-tuned with datasets from sedimentary basins around the world, while equations linking capillary pressure and clay content in the second approach are derived from best-fit relationships of samples mainly from the North Sea.…”

“…6 and 7) is based on the assumption of a linear correlation between these variables. The Sperrevik et al (2002) (Eqs. 8 and 9) algorithm also assumes an exponential relationship but tends to predict lower capillary threshold pressures than the Bretan et al ( 2003) algorithm (Fig.…”

Uncertainty in fault seal parameters: implications for CO<sub>2</sub> column height retention and storage capacity in geological CO<sub>2</sub> storage projects

“…Evidence from outcrop studies indicate that faults play an important role for the migration of CO2 in the subsurface. Both fault parallel migration of CO2 in fault damage zones (Annunziatellis et al, 2008;Gilfillan et al, 2011;Kampman et al, 2012;Burnside et al, 2013;Keating et al, 2013Keating et al, , 2014Frery et al, 2015;Jung et al, 2015;Skurtveit et al, 2017;Bond et al, 2017;Miocic et al, 2019) and across-fault migration has been reported (Shipton et al, 2004;Dockrill and Shipton, 2010). Studies of natural analogues for CO2 storage sites have shown that if naturally occurring CO2 reservoirs fail to retain column heights of CO2 in the subsurface this is almost exclusively due to fault leakage (Miocic et al, 2016;Roberts et al, 2017).…”