Caprock Systems for CO₂ Geological Storage
- 1 June 2011
- Storage
The study involved a detailed literature review of recent and ongoing research in this topic, with engineering judgement drawn from the findings. The study focussed on caprocks in the context of CO₂ storage in deep saline formations, although depleted hydrocarbon fields were also considered, in the context of the associated wide body of available knowledge. Particular issues considered by the study included: Caprock characteristics for site selection purposes; Geomechanical, geochemical and other relevant processes, and their coupling into predictive performance models; Potential leakage pathways and mechanisms, including faults, fractures and by diffusion; Discussion of the time frames and rates of leakage for the various mechanisms and caprock systems; Best practices for caprock assessment including data collection and modelling methodologies.