Energy Transition
Energy Transition | Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilisation
Subsurface Characterization, Screening and Site Selection for Geologic CO2 Storage Sites
Next Event
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a key means of mitigating climate change and is the only option currently available to decarbonize industries such as cement, steel, petrochemicals and LNG. As opportunities in oil and gas decline, they are growing in CCS. Human activities now generate about 35Gt of CO2 (1 gigatonne=1 billion tonnes) per year. At ~$50/ton for sequestration, the potential opportunity is enormous, both in new business revenue and in repurposing old assets and delaying decommissioning costs. Mitigation of the worst effects of climate change will require storing billions of tons per year, with an industry to match. In the US alone, the National Petroleum Council estimates that CCS could employ ~230,000 people, similar to the current oil industry. This course empowers attendees to develop and apply their skills to the growing industry of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage. Attendees will be guided through the subsurface characterization and risk assessment of a storage site. Focus will be on the geologic needs for site definition, screening and development.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a classroom or virtual classroom course comprising a mixture of lectures, discussion, quizzes and interactive exercises.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Identify and describe key subsurface parameters
- Assess static and dynamic capacity
- Calculate injectivity and calibrate project requirements
- Discuss the pros and cons of different storage schemes
- Define and evaluate potential storage sites
- Identify and address subsurface risks
Course Content
- Carbon storage sites: Goals, boundary conditions and needs
- Natural CO2 accumulations
- Characteristics
- Long-term retention
- Leakage causes and pathways
- Trapping mechanisms for storage
- buoyant, residual, local capillary, dissolution and mineralization
- Reservoir systems
- Capacity
- Key variables and requirements
- Calculation of static and dynamic capacities
- Controls on storage efficiency
- Injectivity
- Variables and requirements
- Calculation and calibration
- Characterization needs
- Depositional architecture
- Porosity and permeability structure
- Confining systems
- Key variables and requirements
- Calibration of seal capacity
- Seals vs baffles
- Characterization needs
- Risk assessment and mitigation
- Area of review
- Faults
- Legacy wells
- Rock-fluid interactions
- Pros, cons and evaluation of different storage schemes
- Depleted fields
- CO2-EOR
- Saline storage
- Site screening and surface requirements
- Data requirements and novel solutions
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
- Geologists, geophysicists, reservoir engineers and other technical subsurface O&G professionals interested in CCUS
- First-level leaders and others tasked with developing and/or assuring geologic storage for CCUS projects
- Recent graduates in petroleum geoscience and reservoir engineering who want to develop skills in CCUS
Instructors
Susan Hovorka
Background
Dr. Susan Hovorka is a sedimentologist who works on fluid flow in diverse applications, inlcuding water resource protection, oil production, and waste storage. She has led a team working geologic storage of CO2 since 1998, with a focus on field studies, monitoring, and capacity estimation. Projects include saline injection at the Frio Test site and Cranfield Field and EOR studies at SACROC oil field, Cranfield, Hastings and West Ranch industrial CO2 utilization projects and GoMCARB offshore charaterization study. She specializes in monitoring to document retention. The Gulf Coast Carbon Center is leading efforts to develop offshore storage capacity in the the US and globaly.
She has a long-term commitment to public and educational outreach.
Affiliations & Accreditation
PhD University of Texas - Geology
MA University of Texas - Geology
BA Earlham College - Geology
Courses Taught
N549: Subsurface Characterization, Screening and Site Selection for Geologic CO2 Storage Sites
N553: Monitoring Geologic CO2 Storage Sites