OR/16/029 Sharing practical experiences to inform deployment of CO2 storage

Pearce, J M, Akhurst, M C, Jones, D G, Vincent, C J and Booth, J H. 2016. Pathways from pilot to demonstration: How can research advance CO2 geological storage deployment? (Energy and Marine Geosciences Programme) British Geological Survey External Report, OR/16/029.

The context for the workshop was provided with an introduction from Professor Mike Stephenson, BGS Chief Scientist, which recognised that coal-fired power generation will continue globally for many decades and that the targets set through the international agreements at CoP21 in Paris will require negative emissions technologies such as bioenergy CCS. Mike outlined the vision for the UK Energy Security & Innovation Observing System for the Subsurface (ESIOS) which will allow independent, rigorous and replicable observations of subsurface processes and enable use of the subsurface for the benefit of society and the economy. It is hoped that data obtained from monitoring at ESIOS sites will be published openly in real time.

Session 1 provided a an opportunity to hear perspectives on research drivers from a number of industrial project developers and large ‘commercial-scale’ demonstrations, including a summary of Norwegian perspectives on research drivers by Philip Ringrose of Statoil; a keynote presentation from Andreas Busch from Shell on their CCS activities and views on research needs for large scale deployment; and a review by Kyle Worth, Petroleum Technology Research Centre, of the Canadian Aquistore project. Pilot-scale projects for offshore monitoring in the North Sea by the STEMM-CCS project and in South Korea were presented by Jerry Blackford (PML) and Sang Hoon Lee (KIOST), respectively. An update was given by Tony Surridge, South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage, on their plans for a storage pilot in South Africa. Finally the coordination of European CCS research facilities that comprise ECCSEL were summarised by Sverre Quale of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Bob Gatliff, BGS, Science Director of Energy and Marine Geoscience presented aspects of research in the hydrocarbons sector relevant to CO₂ storage.

Key research themes that emerged were related to both injection processes such as mitigation strategies and understanding behaviour of CO₂ in wells and post-injection (and post-abandonment) phases such as long-term wellbore monitoring. Efficient and cost-effective monitoring was seen as requiring some further development, both in the wellbore and to provide intelligent baseline information especially offshore.

Discussions were centred around three themes of monitoring, experience from demonstration projects and the issue of micro-seismicity. Firstly, the value of rapid publication of ‘raw’ data to the public was discussed; experiences from operations such as Snøhvit and Weyburn indicated that the public could benefit more from publication of an interpreted dataset to help them understand the context and processes that could be observed in the data. The challenges of providing quality data and managing very large amounts of data were identified.

Secondly, research and development of monitoring technologies at demonstration projects was typically motivated by a number of simple questions that can be summarised as the need to quantify processes; what are the measurable detection limits, how frequently should measurements be taken and what are the measurement requirements? It was recognised that monitoring requires integration of different sensors and disciplines. Pilot projects can play a role in providing facilities to develop new or improved cost-effective monitoring technologies which could then be deployed and tested at larger demonstration sites. Whilst many pilot projects focus on demonstration of successful storage it was felt that there remained a need to also evaluate mitigation and remediation options in failure scenarios. It was recognised that getting funding for this can be challenging.

Thirdly, induced micro-seismicity was recognised as an issue of particular interest amongst communities living close to a number of subsurface operations (for example CO₂ storage, hydrocarbon production, mining and quarrying). A range of opinions were expressed over the use of routine pressure monitoring. Whilst reservoir pressure data was generally agreed to be very valuable information the capabilities to routinely monitor bottom-hole pressures for example were not fully accepted by all during the discussion. Some pilot projects had BHP datasets that the delegates felt would be very worthwhile sharing amongst the community. Whilst above-reservoir pressure measurements are now routinely taken in some countries, there remained a gap in smarter interpretation of extrapolated reservoir pressures. Furthermore there was also a need to monitor regional pressure responses, especially in pressure-connected stores, where scale-up of pressure management may be needed.