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Discover the latest advances carbon capture and storage research
The study was proposed with the intention of developing an understanding of where future research efforts in CO₂ storage technologies should be focused on in the next decade, informing the potential directions for future research in order to fully maximise the potential benefits of storage technologies to commercial-scale CCS projects.
This review aims to assess the current understanding on reducing emissions from flaring in the oil and gas industry and to review literature on both the quantification of emissions and current mitigation strategies. IEAGHG published a technical review 2017-TR7 (Oct 2017) which studied emissions along the natural gas supply chain but flaring emissions were not included. This review aims to follow on from 2017-TR7 as a supplementary review on flaring emissions.
In late August 2015, Shell Canada began sustained, commercial-scale operation of the first-ever CO₂ capture facility at an oil sands bitumen or heavy oil upgrader in the world, as well as transportation and storage of the carbon dioxide to a nearby geological storage site. This remarkable facility is situated near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This report explores the journey of the Shell Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project team and its partners, and will provide valuable insights to other heavy oil upgraders and oil refineries globally that seek to reduce their lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions through deployment of CCS technologies and infrastructure.
IEAGHG’s combined Modelling and Risk Management Network, hosted by the EERC, took place in Grand Forks, North Dakota between 18th and 22nd June 2018. These meetings bring together leading experts from research and industry to discuss the latest work and developments, with over 30 speakers and 71 attendees representing 8 countries. The theme for the meeting was ‘How advances in modelling and risk management improve pressure management, capacity estimation, leakage detection and the prediction of induced seismicity’. Sessions included project updates, the application of oil and gas production experience, modelling capacity, unconventional reservoir risk assessments and active pressure management. The third day focused on conformance and regulation with a keynote presentation by Lynn Helms from the North Dakota Industrial Commission on Class VI well regulations.
This project focuses on collecting industry experience on the drilling, completion, regularity and interventions of CO₂ wells. The aim for the report was to compare methodologies and techniques used for handling CO₂ compared with those required for hydrocarbon extraction. This has allowed for a comparison to be made to the research already conducted on CO₂ well integrity and monitoring techniques. The study will investigate whether conditions experienced during CO₂ handling operations were predicted from modelling and experimental work and the effectiveness of linked risk assessments.
This workshop came about to address a recommendation from the CSLF on offshore CCS. This 3rd International Workshop on Offshore CCS took place on 3-4 May, organised by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) in collaboration with IEAGHG and others, and hosted by the Research Council of Norway in Oslo, with support from SANEDI and CSLF.The aim of the workshop series is to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences among those who are doing offshore storage and those who are interested, and to facilitate international collaboration on projects. Over 60 attendees from 8 countries participated in this 3rd workshop.The agenda included: How to learn from learnings?; Value Chains for Offshore; Infrastructure re-use; Monitoring offshore CO₂ storage/EOR; Offshore CO₂ storage resource assessment; Project updates; Standards and Regulatory Frameworks; and Brainstorming towards an international collaborative project.
Our recent study ‘Case Studies of CO₂ Storage in Depleted Oil and Gas Fields’ (2017-01) concluded that CO₂ storage in depleted fields would not only be viable with potentially lower risk but could also be relatively cost effective, providing important intermediate-scale storage resources. The report highlighted that re-using an O&G fields would be beneficial as “there would likely be cost savings over saline aquifer sites, particularly in the characterisation stages (where there is the advantage of production history and proved hydrocarbon retention to reduce uncertainty in containment and capacity)”.
A key determinant for CO₂ storage in deep saline formations (DSFs) is dynamic efficiency (E factor) – that is the effect that increased pressure caused by fluid injection has on the storage capacity of a formation. The storage capacity will always be limited by the pressure limit imposed by the geomechanical strength of the caprock, which is defined as the fracture pressure. If a formation is bounded by faults or other low permeability barriers, then excess pressure could limit the dynamic efficiency, a condition referred to as a closed boundary. In contrast formations that extend over several 100 square kilometres without significant barriers can enable pressure to be dissipated, a condition known as an open boundary. In a previous study commissioned by IEAGHG the effects of dynamic efficiency were compared between two contrasting onshore basins (one open and the other closed), but over a long hypothetical time-scale of 2,000 years. Although the previous study showed the effects of boundary conditions, the dynamic efficiency was based on very large areas extending of several thousands of square kilometres. The results did not reflect the more likely conditions of much shorter timescales and injection over limited areas that would be experienced in early CO₂ storage sites. The aim of this second study is to improve the estimated dynamic storage of DSFs based on a modelled 50 year injection period and over comparatively limited areas of ~1,000 km2. Two well researched formations were selected: one from an onshore basin (the Minnelusa Formation in the USA) and the other form an offshore basin (the Bunter Formation in the North Sea). This study also includes a cost development model to determine how the number of wells affects the cost-effectiveness of each storage site.
The theme for this meeting was ‘The Cost and Value-effectiveness of Monitoring: what key drivers are required to deliver an optimum outcome’. Sessions included project updates, the application of oil and gas production experience, innovative monitoring techniques, offshore monitoring developments, overburden research including controlled release experiments, wellbore integrity and micro-seismicity. Delegates also took part in a group exercise on how to respond to a hypothetical leak scenario. The meeting highlighted the impressive advances that have been made in the use of fibre-optic distributed acoustic sensors (DAS) at projects, including helical configured cables, to overcome the limitations of directional signals. The technology is now under trial at pilot CO<sub>2</sub> storage sites.
This second workshop built on the conclusions and recommendations from the first workshop in 2016 by continuing the theme of ‘how to do’, and including sessions on how to find storage, monitoring developments, CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR potential offshore, and infrastructure options, with presentations from Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and Japan. New to all attendees were presentations on the US Department of Energy (DOE) -supported US projects looking at offshore storage in sedimentary basins in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and in basalts in the northern Pacific. Conclusions and recommendations were agreed, with a certain focus on infrastructure issues with the aim of engaging with operators of offshore infrastructure to make them aware of the opportunities from CCS and CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR.
The 2017 international independent expert review of the RCSP had the following aims: <ol> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>To follow up progress in addressing the recommendations of the third review in 2013, both in terms of the overall RCSP and individual regional partnerships and their Phase III projects;</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>To assess the progress on the individual Phase III projects (7) and consider whether the proposed technical work program for each project has achieved its goals and those of the overall RCSP. Each project was expected to respond to the recommendations made in the previous review in 2013 and whether any subsequent modifications to project plans had achieved their desired effect;</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>To assess results and key findings from the Phase III tests across the RCSP;</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>To assess the overall technical program of the RCSP, address the synergies between the 7 Phase III projects and how they complement each other and how collectively they can provide a technical basis for future commercial scale projects in the USA;</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>To assess how the RCSP compares, complements and contrasts with similar projects underway worldwide and how the information from these projects can help build an international knowledge base on CO<sub>2</sub> capture and storage.</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> </ol>
This report documents the subsurface processes that may enable CO₂ to potentially migrate from the storage reservoir to within the overburden sequence. The potential rates of migration for each migration pathway and the implications for leakage are discussed. Secondary trapping mechanisms within the overburden are also discussed within the report. The conclusions are focused on tying overburden characteristics to their impact on developing risk assessments. As well as specific pathway structures, five CO₂ storage projects were selected for this review and the characteristics of the overburden sequence that promote trapping and hinder migration at each site are a summarised. The projects chosen were the offshore Sleipner and Snøhvit CO₂ storage projects, the planned storage site in the Goldeneye Field, the onshore Ketzin pilot CO₂ injection project in Germany and the Field Research Station in Canada.
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