Session 4B of GHGT was held on Tuesday 25th October and heard international experts give insights into recent developments on depleted reservoirs and injectivity. Equinor began the session by sharing a simulation study of the Sleipner plume on the entire Utsira formation using a multi-physics modelling approach, which achieved a general understanding of the main parameters influencing the plume movement and saw layered reservoirs with multiple CO2 accumulations presenting a challenge for both static and dynamic modelling. Equinor noted that injected CO2 as a contrast medium is helpful to assist in mapping heterogeneities and that thermo modelling on the plume movement is essential.


Our French colleague from GeoRessources described briefly the work on the CO2–Dissolved concept by BRGM and the new MIRAGES-2 experiment by GeoRessources to demonstrate the impact of rock heterogeneities on the dynamics of wormhole propagation in limestone reservoirs. Talks from TotalEnergies looked at the Aramis Project and an estimate of CO2 storage resources in depleted reservoirs, work which developed a fit-for-purpose approach coupling subsurface uncertainties and field injection strategy, and emphasised that the field management strategy is a powerful tool automating the well actions in a consistent manner.


A second talk in this session from TotalEnergies looked at a microfluidic approach to assessing the hydrate risk for CO2 storage into depleted gas reservoirs whereby experiments forced the formation of hydrates with CO2 injection. They developed a microfluidic platform to study hydrate formation in conditions relevant to near wellbore conditions. The University of North Dakota's Energy & Environmental Research Center presented their work on extending CO2 EOR and associated storage to low pressure oil reservoirs by adding rich gas components to the injection stream. They compared minimum miscibility pressure for CO2 and rich gas components with numerical simulations carried out to investigate EOR scenarios CO2 and CO2 with rich gas, noting that rich gas can make oil flow easier under low-pressure reservoir conditions.


The full papers from this session and all others at GHGT-16 will be released in due course with the publication of the conference proceedings. To stay updated on this and all of IEAGHG's activities, you can subscribe to the IEAGHG mailing list at http://eepurl.com/du7fkH