Northwest Mcgregor Field CO2 Huff 'n' Puff: A Case Study of the Application of Selected Geophysical Techniques for CO2 Monitoring in a Deep Carbonate Reservoir
As part of Phase II of the U.S. Department of Energy's Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership Program, the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership has conducted field activities to determine the effects of injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) into an oil field in the U.S. portion of the Williston Basin. The purpose of the activities was to evaluate the potential dual purpose of CO2 storage and enhanced oil recovery in carbonate rocks deeper than 2440 m. One of the goals of the project was to evaluate the ability of two geophysical technologies, specifically Schlumberger's Reservoir Saturation Tool (RST) and Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP), to detect a small-volume CO2 plume in deep carbonate reservoirs. Specifically, a CO2 huff 'n' puff test was conducted on an oil-producing well in the Mission Canyon Formation at a depth of approximately 2454 m in the Northwest McGregor oil field in Williams County, North Dakota. During the test, 440 tons of CO2 was injected into a single well and allowed to "soak" for 2 weeks, after which the well was put back into production. The RST and VSP technologies were applied before and after the injection in an effort to observe the disposition of the injected CO2 within the reservoir. The results of the RST and VSP indicated that the CO2 penetrated approximately 300 feet horizontally and 50 feet vertically into the reservoir and suggest that the RST and VSP technologies may be effective monitoring, verification, and accounting tools for deep carbonate oil reservoirs.View/Download Document
Event/Meeting Information
9th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration
5/10/2010
Pittsburgh, PA