Energy Transition
Energy Transition | Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilisation
Geomechanics for CCS Projects
Format and Duration:
2 days
4 sessions
The course will begin with a review of potential geomechanical effects in CCS projects and the evidences for their possibility. It will then cover some core elements of geomechanics and draw the link between geomechanical and permeability changes, as indicated from laboratory experiments and from well tests, with its key consequences for CCS. The course will then progress to description and examples of sophisticated geomechanical modelling in the context of CCS. Field experience in some CCS projects is reviewed, emphasising any indications of geomechanical influence and ways of monitoring behaviour. The course considers Mechanical Earth Models (MEMs), why they are created, the pre-requisites and steps of how they are created. Operations can modify simultaneously pore pressures, temperatures, and stresses in the reservoir and surrounding formations. The techniques and software available to study the effect of these temporal changes in 4D will be reviewed. A case study application to the geomechanically active Gröningen gas field will be described to illustrate these principles.
Business impact: Geomechanical modelling is essential for prediction of likely effects from a planned CCS project, or to understand behaviour of an ongoing project. It is applied to assessment of caprock integrity, fault reactivation, induced seismicity, fracture influence on reservoir flow, reservoir management, drilling and completion parameters.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This classroom or virtual classroom course comprises a mixture of lectures, discussion, and case studies. A specific example of a high resolution 3D mechanical earth model from a gas field will be examined in detail. This course includes e-learning elements that provide background content on Carbon Capture and Storage that serves to provide an introduction to the subject matter:
- EC003 Fundamentals of CCS
- EC005 Behaviour of CO2 in Reservoirs
- EC006 Monitoring CO2 Storage
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Appraise the critical importance of geomechanics to CCS projects.
- Assess geomechanical aspects of caprock integrity, fault reactivation, induced seismicity, fracture influence, reservoir management, drilling and completion parameters.
- Evaluate Mechanical Earth Models for their ability to predict geomechanical effects particularly as applied in a CCS context.
- Determine the ways that operations can simultaneously modify reservoir pore pressures, temperatures, and stresses in the reservoir and surrounding formations.
Course Content
The self-paced e-learning elements of this course are
- Fundamentals of CCS
- Behaviour of CO2 in Reservoirs
- Monitoring CO2 Storage
Seminar Topics
Module 1: Importance of Geomechanics to CCS – An Overview
- Topic 1: Potential geomechanical issues associated with CCS
- Topic 2: Potential for leakage
- Topic 3: Natural hydrocarbon seepages
- Topic 4: Examples of leakage to surface
- Topic 5: Examples of Out-Of-Zone-Injection
Module 2: Basic Geomechanics
- Topic 1: Stress and Strain
- Topic 2: Elastic moduli – stiffness, compliance, Poisson’s ratio
- Topic 3: Stresses in the earth
- Topic 4: Measurement of stresses
- Topic 5: Effective, poroelastic & thermoelastic stress
- Topic 6: Rock Failure
Module 3: Induced Permeability and Seismicity
- Topic 1: Geomechanically induced fault & fracture permeability changes
- Topic 2: Earth in a near-critical geomechanical state
- Topic 3: Flowrate fluctuation correlations
- Topic 4: Induced Seismicity
Module 4: Mechanical Earth Modelling Fundamentals
- Topic 1: Introduction to MEM - An Overview
- Topic 2: Definition of a MEM
- Topic 3: The Importance of MEM
- Topic 4: Core Testing, Rock Fabric and Rheology
- Topic 5: Shared Earth Model Workflow
- Topic 6: Importance of Knowing Stresses
- Topic 7: Conclusions
Module 5: Building and Running a 3D MEM
- Topic 1: Introduction and outline of process
- Topic 2: MEM workflow
- Topic 3: Application to Gröningen gas field: background
Module 6: Application of MEM to Gröningen Gas Field
- Topic 1: Building the ARTEMIS analytical model and results
- Topic 2: The FEM Apollo model of Gröningen
- Topic 3: Comparison of FEM results for Gröningen with analysis of historical flowrates.
- Topic 4: Course summary & discussion
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is aimed at subsurface oil and gas professionals would like to understand the issues relating to geomechanics for CCS projects.
Instructors
Kes Heffer
Background
Kes worked for BP for 29 years, initially in worldwide operations as a petroleum/reservoir engineer, and latterly in issues of reservoir description. He has worked on many reservoirs including some of the biggest in the world, both sandstone and carbonate, ‘fractured’ and ‘unfractured’. Since 1999 he has been an Honorary Fellow of what is now the Institute of GeoEnergy Engineering at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, and has conducted research and consultancy work through Reservoir Dynamics Ltd. His main research interest is the role of geomechanical stress effects in the processes of fluid flow in reservoirs, particularly as demonstrated in correlations between well-rate fluctuations; these provide information on flowpaths through reservoirs, particularly those due to fractures and faults useful for understanding geomechanical effects and history-matching of simulation models and future reservoir management.
Courses Taught
N975: Integrated Geomechanics and Reservoir Management
N590: Geomechanics for CCS Projects
Nick Koutsabeloulis
Background
Nick Koutsabeloulis is the creator of the VISAGE System, the world leading geomechanical simulator marketed by SLB. Having spent his early career in BP Research, Nick founded VIPS Ltd., a company offering consultancy services in advanced reservoir geomechanics and licensing of the VISAGE System to clients in oil and gas. When VIPS was sold to SLB in 2007, Nick joined SLB as Global Head of Geomechanics leading its worldwide geomechanics consulting and software division. In 2019, Nick has founded Geomex Software Solutions and has created ARTEMIS, the world's first geoscience simulator. Geomex provides consultancy services to clients in the oil and gas industry specialising in providing advice in particularly challenging subsurface operations. Among other assignments the company is currently working on the largest gas storage project in Europe.
Courses Taught
N590: Geomechanics for CCS Projects
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 2.9 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 29 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.