Laboratory Experiments for Calibration of Petrophysical Properies for CO2 Sequestration Monitoring: CO2CRC Otway Project Case Study

Abstract

Monitoring of CO₂ plume migration using seismic methods requires the knowledge of physical properties of subsurface rocks and the influence of fluids. This is particularly important for the Stage 2C of the Otway Project, where small amount of injected CO₂ makes its detection and monitoring challenging. The required knowledge on rock properties can be obtained by laboratory measurements on rock samples and calibration of theoretical rock physics models with seismic, log and lab data. Furthermore, interaction of rocks with reactive fluid such as CO₂/brine mixtures may lead to change in mechanical properties of rocks making existing models non-applicable for simulations. In this presentation we show how these issues can be addressed through the following suite of lab experiments: - Investigation of flow of the changes of acoustic properties upon scCO2 injection on sandstone samples from different wells including CRC-2 well; - Examination of the time lapse changes of elastic moduli and attenuation at seismic frequencies (1 Hz- 100 Hz) in brine saturated sandstones during injection of scCO2; - Monitoring of fluid front using combined acoustic methods and computed tomography (CT); - Evaluation of changes in mechanical properties of carbonates and sandstones upon fluid saturation using indentation techniques; - Measurement of bulk modulus of CO₂/brine mixtures at elevated temperatures and pressures at different salinity levels.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90217 © 2015 International Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, September 13-16, 2015