Abstract
The storage of CO2 in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, coal seams or saline aquifers is an important means of mitigating greenhouse effect in the environment. In CO2 underground storage projects, well integrity is very important to ensure a safe execution of projects and storage of CO2. It is a prerequisite for such projects and must be demonstrated for all wells affected by the injected CO2 including abandoned wells. As part of one comprehensive methodology proposed by the authors, the leakage of CO2 from the storage reservoir into the atmosphere or overlying aquifers over a certain time frame has been simulated. By building a model consisting of the critical system components, e.g., storage reservoir, casing-cement-rock composite system, injected CO2 etc, according to a detailed study of features, events and processes (FEPs) which affect well integrity, a simulation is conducted for a time frame of 1000 years without consideration of geochemical influences. For the scenarios simulated, results show that CO2 leakage rate is very small except for a reservoir under high pressure and poor quality cement-sheaths, which can lead to leakage rates in excess of the maximum allowable value.
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Bai, M., Reinicke, K.M. (2013). Numerical Simulation of CO2 Leakage through Abandoned Wells during CO2 Underground Storage. In: Hou, M., Xie, H., Were, P. (eds) Clean Energy Systems in the Subsurface: Production, Storage and Conversion. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37849-2_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37849-2_17
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