Aquistore CO<sub>2</sub> Storage Project: Numerical Modeling and Simulation Update

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership, through the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), continues to support the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) Aquistore project. This support has been in the form of geologic characterization; involvement in the Science, Engineering, and Research Committee (SERC); involvement in public outreach; development of geologic models; and the running of predictive simulations on the expected injection program at the site. The Aquistore project is part of the world’s first commercial postcombustion carbon capture, utilization, and storage project from a coal-fired power-generating facility, the SaskPower Boundary Dam, located in Saskatchewan, Canada, and acts as a storage site for a portion of the captured CO2 from the Boundary Dam power plant. The Aquistore site includes one injection well and a 152-meter offset observation well. Both wells were drilled and completed in the Deadwood and Black Island Formations. Injection at the Aquistore site was initiated in April 2015. Current activities concern building a new static model that honors the actual geology and structure rather than using a simplified, layer-cake model from the previous simulation work. The horizons of the formations were interpreted, picked from the baseline vibro seismic data and used to construct this static model. Another update involves property distribution in the model. Porosity data for the current updated model were distributed based on seismic inversion methods. History matching was updated with injection data through June 1, 2017. A spinner survey carried out in April 2015 revealed that Perforations 1, 2, and 4 were taking about 10%, 45%, and 45% of injected CO2, respectively, while Perforation 3 was completely plugged, not taking any injected volume of CO2. Moreover, CO2 breakthrough has already occurred at the observation well, according to the pulsed-neutron logging (PNL) data collected in February 2016. Hence, the simulation model was further calibrated with these data from periodic monitoring well logging events through the history-matching process to develop a better predictive simulation model. This updated simulation model at the EERC is now capable of reproducing (with a global history-matching error of around 7%) not only the continuous pressure response but also the well logging monitoring data such as CO2 flow distributions at the injection well and the CO2 breakthrough profile at the observation well. The first arrival of CO2 at the observation well is not known. The PNL data collected in February 2016 showed clear evidence of CO2 presence with saturation values as high as 60% at the observation well while a monitoring logging event (a pulsed-neutron decay [PND]) prior to that one, performed on December 4, 2015, showed no sign of CO2. The history-matching results indicate that CO2 appears to have first arrived at the observation well around mid-December 2015, after approximately 8 months of injection. At the end of the history-matching process, the simulated CO2 plume extent appears the largest in Perforation 2 with a diameter of 540 m around the injection well. Using the history-matched simulation model, 50-year forecast scenarios (an additional 2 years of CO2 injection and 48 years of postinjection) were investigated to predict CO2 plume evolution. For the 2 years of injection, two different cases were considered with an equivalent amount of CO2 injected: continuous and cyclic injection modes to compare the response of the storage formation. The predictive simulation results indicate that, in both cases, the CO2 plume looks similar in size and shape with a diameter of about 1 km in Perforation 2 around the injection well at the end of the 2 years of injection. During the postinjection period of 48 years, the heterogeneity and geologic structure of the storage formation controls the plume migration. The CO2 plume extends out 1.4 km in Perforation 2, regardless of the injection mode, and the CO2 appears to slightly migrate more to the west of the injection well because of buoyancy force as the structure is updip in that direction. The pressure falloff near to the initial formation pressure was observed in both cases as result of the plume migration and stabilization. This updated simulation model will help reduce uncertainty in future performance prediction and provide better decision support tools in optimizing CO2 storage performance and managing the storage project’s risk profile.

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