A Regional Wellbore Evaluation of the Basal Cambrian System
The basal Cambrian formation is one of several deep saline formations within the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership region that has been identified as a potential CO2 storage site. The basal Cambrian system spans a region that includes parts of both the United States and Canada. On the U.S. side of the border, the basal Cambrian system covers an area of approximately 507,155 square kilometers (195,814 square miles) and occurs in the states of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota; on the Canadian side of the border, it encompasses nearly 811,345 square kilometers (313,285 square miles) in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The basal Cambrian formation has the potential to store between 257 to 834 billion tonnes of CO2, making it one of the largest potential CO2 storage resources in the region. This work evaluates one component of CO2 storage in the basal Cambrian system - the integrity of legacy oil and gas exploration and production wellbores that penetrate the system on the U.S. side of the border. These legacy wells provide a potential conduit through the cap rock formation, which would otherwise act as a seal to maintain CO2 in the storage reservoir. The assessment process occurred in five primary steps: 1) identify all wells that penetrate the basal Cambrian system and obtain well files from each respective state regulatory office, 2) record data on leakage risk factors for each well, 3) score and rank each well based on a weighted ranking for each leakage risk factor, 4) evaluate the spatial relationships among well ranking using geostatistics, and 5) identify contiguous portions of the basal Cambrian system that would minimize exposure to high-ranking (i.e., higher-risk) wellbores and thereby represent potential areas for future CO2 geologic storage.View/Download Document
Event/Meeting Information
12th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies
10/5/2014
Austin, TX