Insights and Commentaries

Laboratory-scale geochemical and geomechanical testing of near wellbore CO₂ injectivity improvement

17th January 2017

Topic(s): CO₂ storage

To highlight the research and achievements of Australian researchers, the Global CCS Institute together with ANLEC R&D will hold a series of webinars throughout 2016 and 2017. Each webinar will highlight a specific ANLEC R&D research project and the relevant report found on the Institute’s website. This is the sixth webinar of the series and presented the results of chemical and mechanical changes that carbon dioxide (CO₂) may have at a prospective storage complex in the Surat Basin, Queensland, Australia.

Earth Sciences and Chemical Engineering researchers at the University of Queensland have been investigating the effects of supercritical CO₂ injection on reservoir properties in the near wellbore region as a result of geochemical reactions since 2011. The near wellbore area is critical for CO₂ injection into deep geological formations as most of the resistance to flow occurs in this region. Any changes to the permeability can have significant economic impact in terms of well utilisation efficiency and compression costs. In the far field, away from the well, the affected reservoir is much larger and changes to permeability through blocking or enhancement have relatively low impact.

This webinar was presented by Prof Sue Golding and Dr Grant Dawson and will provide an overview of the findings of the research to assist understanding of the beneficial effects and commercial consequences of near wellbore injectivity enhancement as a result of geochemical reactions.

Here is a recording of the webinar and a browsable version of the slides used in the presentation:

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