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openCCS » Activities » Storage » Closure » Future Work Plan activities for Storage in the Closure stage
This page was last reviewed on 26 November 2012 by Angus Henderson, and last edited on the 26 November 2012 by Angus Henderson
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Future Work Plan activities for Storage in the Closure stage

Objective

  • Perform a post-mortem review of project success / failure / learning outcomes from studies and make critical decision on storage site life span - extension or termination?
  • Review Measurement, Monitoring and Verification (MMV) data for project life cycle and perform a critical evaluation of plume evolution. Confirm current status of CO2 plume (i.e. thermodynamic stability and spatial extent). Assess residual risks 
  • Continue MMV data collection at frequency required by regulatory authority, evaluate and issue regular status reports
  • Gradually scale-down outreach and technical study activities. Disseminate significant technical / economic / environmental / social results subject to approvals. Archive all study deliverables according to best practices and prepare relevant documentation for transfer of responsibility

Major Deliverables

During the Closure stage, there are two separate issues to address:

  • Activities associated with termination of injection / production operations, well abandonment, facilities decommissioning and site remediation (i.e. mostly surface focussed activities)
  • Activities associated with continuing MMV data collection, evaluation and reporting at regular intervals (i.e. mostly sub-surface focussed activities). Status reports must be provided at regular intervals in a re-iterative process (as agreed between operators, regulators and study / consultancy partners), to inform ongoing study activities and satisfy regulatory requirements until the site is deemed to have stabilised to the extent that liability and responsibility can be transferred to a third party (e.g. national government)

As a result, deliverables will fall into two categories - those associated with the first category, which may include:

  • Status / risk assessment reports and closure plan indicating the current security of the storage site, demonstrating evidence of ongoing reservoir and CO2 plume stability and compliance with all regulatory requirements specified for the closure stage
  • Feasibility assessment study indicating whether or not the site has spare capacity. If there is spare capacity closure might be deferred, assuming the regulatory authority approves, the project technical / economic / risk model is favourable and CO2can still be supplied and injected in the required quantities. This may be dependent on a number of issues:
    • Whether there are still any financial upsides to be gained from EOR / EGR / ECBM operations
    • Longevity of the facilities, infrastructure, wells and MMV equipment is  compatible with ongoing operations in terms of economics / risk
    • Guaranteed continuity and proximity of CO2 supply
    • Security of tenure (i.e. lease expiry and ability / inability to renew)
    • Contractual arrangements (e.g. supplier may require capacity / injection rate that exceeds what can be provided by the operator of a mature site)
    • Research reports dealing with well abandonment, intervention and remediation equipment and techniques. These may be based on theoretical studies, laboratory tests and / or field trials concerned with:
      • Well cements / sealants resistant to prolonged CO2 exposure
      • Low-cost MMV for post-closure monitoring
      • Creating hydraulic barriers for leak mitigation
      • Passive and active intervention technology (e.g. use of microbial or gas / fluid barriers)
      • Operational reports documenting and summarising all measurements and processed data acquired from MMV operations undertaken at the storage site through the project life cycle, including details of all acquisition parameters, pre-processing steps, equipment used, maintenance / calibration reports, QA / QC procedures adopted and conclusions / recommendations drawn from this historical data review
      • Summary reports on all analytical study activities performed during the operational phase (e.g. MMV program, laboratory work, computer modelling, simulations, history matching, forward predictions and risk/uncertainty analysis), including details of study partners / consultants employed, software and interpretation techniques used, QA / QC procedures adopted and conclusions / recommendations drawn, detailing any requirements to update the monitoring plan, risk register and project schedule for post-closure activities
      • Following approval of closure - decommissioning / closure report addressing the following areas:
        • Final injected volume of CO2 and produced volumes of hydrocarbons and water (if applicable)
        • Details of all decommissioning activities including procedures adopted and future environmental, access, MMV, economic and legal requirements
        • Details of all integrity tests / analyses performed and well logs acquired during well abandonment operations
        • Intervention / remediation strategy to be adopted
        • Financial / liability provision for post-closure period
        • Site inspection, outreach and environmental impact assessment study reports to confirm to regulatory authorities and other interested parties (e.g. leaseholders) that the site has been remediated to an acceptable condition

For the second category, the deliverables may include:

  • MMV data for processing, analysis and integration into modelling studies for ongoing evaluation
  • Social / economic / environmental data for evaluation in related studies
  • Regular reports, charts and schedules associated with long-term monitoring activities, such as plume maps, CO2 / formation fluid saturation, pressure and temperature measurements and processed data resulting from all MMV operations conducted at the storage site to be supplied to:
    • The regulatory authority for verification and accounting purposes
    • The operators or their appointed study / consultancy partners for history-matching, forward prediction and risk modelling purposes
    • Update status reports from ongoing research activities (e.g. coupled reservoir engineering / geochemical / geomechanical predictive modelling studies, geochemical / microbial interaction studies, etc.), including recommendations for any amendments or updates that may be required to the MMV strategy, risk register or  injection / production schedule
    • Laboratory analysis / test reports for any sampling activities performed (formation fluid / gas composition, microbiological, sand production, etc.) to inform the operators
    • Updated reports on the thermodynamic behaviour of CO2 / formation brine using real-time pressure / temperature data, highlighting any trends or unexpected behaviour that needs to be investigated
    • Reports and results for any well intervention activities (including recompletion, logging, integrity testing and fluid / gas sampling)
    • Updated static sub-surface models constructed from seismic interpretations, ready for input into geological / geochemical / geomechanical / reservoir modelling software and subsequent analysis
    • Reports on repeat monitoring survey/s, including details of all acquisition parameters, pre-processing steps, equipment used (including new or prototype techniques and / or equipment) and QA / QC procedures adopted
    • Updated surface / seabed environmental models, ready for input into Geographical Information System (GIS) software and subsequent analysis
    • Updated remediation strategies (based on latest information) to correct any well, storage reservoir, overburden and / or MMV problems that may occur at some future point
    • Summary reports on all study-related activities, detailing update requirements to ongoing studies (e.g. requirement for new / different data or new studies), MMV plan, risk register and project schedule, including general observations and recommendations for advancing to the transfer of responsibility stage
    • Technical publications for general dissemination of significant results (i.e. subject to copyright and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) restrictions and necessary project management / regulatory authority approvals)

Tasks

During the Closure stage, the following tasks are required for well abandonment, decommissioning and remediation operations:

  • Report the final volumes of CO2 injected and hydrocarbons / water produced (if applicable) to the regulatory authority for verification purposes and study / consultancy partners, to inform ongoing study activities
  • Compile a closure activities report, including a critical review of procedures, equipment and specialist techniques employed, to help identify any knowledge gaps and assist future studies within the following areas:
    • Well abandonment (i.e. intervention, integrity testing, logging and plugging / capping)
    • Infrastructure removal (i.e. wellheads, processing / injection / compression facilities, pipelines, buildings, etc. - possibly also roads and fences)
    • Site remediation / reinstatement of land / seabed
    • Ongoing MMV operations and requirements for site access to perform periodic surveys and maintain any fixed equipment
    • Well / site intervention / remediation strategies
    • Site performance assessment criteria (e.g. storage verification methods, modelling expected versus actual behaviour, leak detection / risk assessment, leakage rates, etc.)
    • List of requirements for site closure application (e.g. historical measurements / models / simulations / integrity tests and how these were obtained and calibrated)
    • Review and archive documentation associated with the project through the entire life cycle. Verify specific requirements for accessing and updating this archive as the project enters the post-closure phase. This is a valuable knowledge based resource that will continue to be referenced for the current project (and future projects), thus it needs to include all project data (raw, processed and experimental), reports, well logs, charts, maps and computer models from areas such as:
      • General administration (i.e. all documentation associated with feasibility study, site screening / characterisation, exploration / storage licence applications, storage site development, CAPEX / OPEX economics, legal / regulatory, outreach activities, environmental impact, general site operations, health and safety, etc.)
      • Operations MMV (i.e. quantification of pressures, temperatures, flow rates, produced water / hydrocarbons,  cumulative CO2 volumes injected / stored, etc.)
      • Laboratory analyses (i.e. mineralogy, rock / fluid compositions, pH, salinity, relative permeability, core analysis, etc.)
      • Survey MMV (i.e. CO2 plume and fluid saturation mapping, surface / seabed environmental impact, equipment location, etc.)
      • Risk / performance assessment simulations (i.e. CO2 plume history matching, coupled flow simulation with geomechanics / geochemistry, etc.)
      • Well activities (i.e. logging, drilling, (re-) completion, intervention, remediation, abandonment, etc.)
      • Decommissioning and site remediation activities, (i.e. intervention and closure plans, risk assessments, results, post-remediation tests, etc.)

For the ongoing MMV operations up to the transfer of liability and responsibility, the following tasks will be required:

  • Continue to perform real-time and / or repeat surveys at intervals defined by closure plan, analyse / process the data, including all QA/QC procedures. Prepare data for supply to appointed study / consultancy partners and input into modelling studies. Data should be supplied with a survey and processing report containing:
    • Key data acquisition parameters (e.g. dominant frequencies, line spacings, extent of coverage, filters used, corrections employed, pre-processing stages, etc.)
    • Equipment used, including details of any calibration tests performed
    • QA / QC procedures employed
    • Details of data processing (e.g. time to depth conversions, velocity analysis, dataset merging, static shifts applied, etc.)
    • Data formats required for input into different software packages
    • Collate, tabulate, graph and report essential real-time and / or periodically acquired data to the regulatory authorities (for verification purposes) and the appointed study / consultancy partners (for history-matching, forward prediction and risk analysis purposes). Some or all of the following data items may be required:
      • CO2 / formation fluid saturation (derived from well logs in monitoring well(s) and / or seismic data amplitude analysis), to illustrate the spatial extent and spread of the migrating plume - this data may also be supplied as maps or cross-sections
      • Well annulus pressures at surface and bottom hole pressures (BHPs) in monitoring well(s) to assess well integrity
      • Bottom hole temperatures (BHTs) in monitoring well(s) to help calibrate models
      • Fluid samples from monitoring well(s) (e.g. to assess CO2 dissolution rates, pH changes and effects on microbiological populations)
      • Surface / seabed data for a range of different monitoring methods to detect leakage (e.g. sonar / bathymetric surveys to detect seeps and pockmark development on the seabed, soil gas surveys to detect presence of CO2 directly or via tracer chemicals added to the CO2, etc.)
      • Continue to update all static sub-surface models and surface / seabed environmental models, calibrate models and run simulations to forward model CO2behaviour in the storage site. The test program should be designed to:
        • Assess the probable spatial distribution and migration behaviour of CO2 within the storage site and below the caprock / seal in the longer-term. This information can then be compared with baseline MMV data and repeat survey data to calibrate fluid flow simulations
        • Provide information about dissolution and phase change behaviour
        • Evaluate the effects of reactive transport processes through the application of coupled geochemical / reservoir flow simulations
        • Assess column heights accumulating beneath sealing formations, to identify high risk areas for seals and legacy wells
        • Identify the presence migration pathways in the overburden (e.g. faults, fractures, palaeo-gas chimneys, high-amplitude anomalies, channels, sand injectites, clinoforms, etc.) and perform a risk assessment of leakage potential
        • Allow informed decisions to be made for any intervention, mitigation or remediation operations
        • Continue to perform laboratory tests on fluid samples acquired from monitoring well(s). The following tests may be required:
          • Formation fluid analysis to determine salinity, viscosity, ionic species and microbiological assemblages present
          • Confirm if tracers are present in the near wellbore region (e.g. noble gases, isotopes, tracer chemicals, etc.)
          • Investigate the reactivity potential of microbiological assemblages with formation fluid / CO2 to form pore-clogging residues and/or additional reaction products (e.g. methane)
          • Continue to update the thermodynamic models for the formation fluid / CO2 system using the real-time pressure and temperature data parameters, to assess the likelihood of any detrimental phase changes occurring in the storage formation (leading to a reduction of storage efficiency)
          • Implement the intervention and remediation strategy (if required) for correcting overburden leaks, defects to wells, problems with MMV equipment and update risk register on a re-iterative basis as required. In all cases of identified leakage, once the leakage has been remediated, further MMV may be required (at a higher frequency and for a longer duration) until the success of intervention and storage integrity can be verified. Some intervention and remediation strategies may include:
            • Well re-entry to plug leaking well with cement or chemical treatments
            • Drilling an interception well above the leakage zone to place cement squeeze or chemical treatments
            • Back producing CO2 from the storage reservoir for re-injection elsewhere
            • Drilling water-production wells to alleviate reservoir pressure
            • treating contaminated groundwater after sealing CO2 leakage
            • Verify that performance targets are being achieved. The monitoring program must be able to confirm that safe storage is being achieved within agreed limits (as defined by the regulator and project developer) and CO2  is still behaving as predicted from modelling studies
            • Revise MMV program as required from ongoing test data analysis. The revision process should address:
              • Minimum monitoring activities and requirements to achieve acceptable performance targets (e.g. amount of seismic data required for model calibration)
              • Economics / running costs
              • Detailed response to early detection of leakage (e.g. sudden storage reservoir pressure decrease)
              • Storage integrity verification for regulatory purposes
              • Ensure that meeting minutes and status reports from studies are reported back to management for review and comment. Integrate study recommendations into post-closure planning activities and perform a management review of any proposed MMV strategy changes / updates in conjunction with a full risk evaluation before considering site implementation
              • Perform a critical evaluation of all ongoing studies at regular intervals as part of the peer-review and QA / QC process. This may include recommending that:
                • Some studies are no longer required
                • Data needs to be collected more / less frequently, depending on plume stability
                • Different data needs to be acquired and / or new processing methods adopted (e.g. if new or improved techniques have been developed)
                • MMV equipment needs to be updated or replaced
                • New / additional studies need to be undertaken to address knowledge gaps
                • Integrate the previous activities into a quantitative risk assessment based on the risk register. Critical technical, economic, environmental and legal risk criteria established for the project should be addressed as part of the risk management plan - any issues that may impact on site performance up to the transfer of responsibility should be highlighted for further detailed consideration
                • Ensure that any ongoing mediation / negotiation / outreach activities required during the Closure stage are being adequately supported and feedback to the relevant teams responsible for these activities
                • Formulate a Post-Closure strategy and list of requirements for the transfer of responsibility application
                • Disseminate any significant findings as appropriate after due consideration of copyright / IPR issues and after securing the necessary approvals

Examples

Institute Knowledge Products

Other Sites

Key Personnel

  • National / Local Government Personnel (Environmental / Legislative)
  • Directors, Managers and Technical Staff / Academics associated with CCS Research and Development Institutes / Private Companies
  • Project Sponsors
  • Project Board (Stakeholder Representatives)
  • Project Manager
  • Project Team (Legal / Financial / Environmental / Technical)
  • Professional Consultants (Legal / Financial / Environmental / Technical)
  • Conflict Management / Outreach Team, including:
    • Public Relations / Marketing / Communications Specialists
    • Hydrocarbon / Minerals / CCS Legal Specialists
    • Community Relations / Sociology Specialists
    • Mediation Specialists
    • Education Specialists
    • Safety Specialists
    • Document Controllers
    • Research Assistants
  • Specialist Health and Safety Personnel for the following operations:
    • Surveying
    • Drilling / Completion / Well Intervention
    • Laboratory
    • Decommissioning
  • Survey Manager
    • Decommissioning Surveyors
    • GIS / Draughting Personnel
  • Drilling / Completion Manager
    • Captain / Bargemaster
    • Drilling / Completion / Intervention Supervisor
    • Drilling / Completion / Intervention Engineers
    • Drill / Completion / Intervention Crew
    • Cement Engineers
    • Wellsite Geologists
    • Wireline Logging Personnel
  • Data Acquisition, MMV Equipment Installation and Maintenance Personnel for Land and / or Marine Operations, including:
    • Geophysical Survey Party Chief
    • Client Representative
    • Marine and/or Land Surveyors
    • Civil / Electrical / Mechanical / Software Engineers and Technicians
    • Geologists / Geophysicists
    • Ship Captain / Crew (offshore only)
  • Processing / Interpretation Geophysicists
  • Geologists / Engineers - specialising in the following disciplines:
    • Structural / Facies Interpretation
    • Basin Modelling
    • Petroleum Engineering / Reservoir Engineering
    • Geomechanics / Geotechnics / Petrophysics
    • *Mechanical / Civil / Electronic / Electrical / Software Engineering
  • Laboratory Managers (Geochemistry / Geomechanics / Core Analysis)
    • Laboratory Technicians
  • Data Analysts (Geochemistry / Geology / Rock Mechanics / Core Analysis)
  • Research Associates (including PhD / MSc students and post-doctoral researchers)
  • Decommissioning Manager
  • Facilities Removal Personnel (*also including the above engineering disciplines)
  • Site Remediation and Landscaping Personnel
This content expresses the point of view of individuals in the CCS community and not necessarily the views of their organisation or the Global CCS Institute.