Novel seismic strategies for monitoring fluid flow in C02 sequestration experiments and heavy-oil fields

用于监测 CO2 封存实验和稠油油田中流体流动的新型地震策略

• 批准号: 386013-2010
• 负责人: VanDerBaan, Mirko
• 金额: $ 2.55万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=685723
• 关键词: Novel; seismic; strategies; monitoring; fluid

Canada has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world. Unfortunately these reserves are predominantly composed of tar sands with very high extraction and refining costs. Heavy-oil exploitation leads also in average to three times larger CO2 emissions than lighter oils. Commercial exploitation of these heavy oils in an environmentally friendly and sustainable fashion therefore demands the development of suitable CO2 sequestration strategies in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Yet public and political acceptance of CO2 sequestration is unlikely unless we are able to detect fluid migration inside the storage reservoir reliably and most importantly the presence of any CO2 leakage. This proposal outlines new approaches to (1) develop robust, reliable and highly sensitive tools to monitor CO2 fluid migration and detect leakage; (2) examine strategies to reduce CO2 monitoring costs compared with conventional hydrocarbon acquisition and processing requirements; (3) improve detection of heavy-oil liquefaction to reduce steam-to-oil ratios thereby reducing drainage costs and environmental footprints. This will be achieved by integrating information contained in both microseismic recordings and surface seismic data, and by developing novel technologies to differentiate between in-situ variations in pressures and fluid contents. This is relevant since pressure perturbations precede fluid flow. Detection of pressure perturbations can therefore provide timely information on potential fluid flow pathways and leakage spots, well in advance of the actual fluids escaping in CO2 sequestration sites. It can also help to improve reservoir simulation models to enhance heavy-oil drainage. Such fundamental and applied research in both heavy-oil extraction and CO2 sequestration is essential to keep Canada at the forefront of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation.

加拿大拥有世界第二大已探明石油储量。不幸的是，这些储量主要由沥青砂组成，开采和精炼成本非常高。重油开采导致的二氧化碳排放量平均也是轻质油的三倍。因此，要以环境友好和可持续的方式对这些重油进行商业开采，需要制定适当的二氧化碳封存战略，以减少温室气体向大气的排放。然而，公众和政界不太可能接受二氧化碳封存，除非我们能够可靠地检测到储藏库内的流体迁移，最重要的是，能够检测到任何二氧化碳泄漏的存在。该提案概述了新的办法，以(1)开发强大、可靠和高度敏感的工具来监测二氧化碳流体的迁移和检测泄漏；(2)审查与传统碳氢化合物获取和处理要求相比降低二氧化碳监测成本的战略；(3)改进对重油液化的检测，以降低蒸汽与石油的比率，从而减少排水成本和环境足迹。这将通过整合微地震记录和地面地震数据中包含的信息以及开发区分压力和流体含量的原地变化的新技术来实现。这是相关的，因为压力扰动先于流体流动。因此，压力扰动的检测可以在二氧化碳封存地点的实际流体逃逸之前，及时提供有关潜在流体流动路径和泄漏点的信息。它还有助于完善油藏模拟模型，提高稠油抽排能力。这种在重油开采和二氧化碳封存方面的基础和应用研究对于保持加拿大在油气勘探和开采方面的领先地位至关重要。