geological storage theme

Kingsley Dunham CentreKeyworthNottingham NG12 5GGTel 0115 936 3100

© NERC All rights reserved

Geological Storage Theme

BGS progress


Web-enabled GIS

• Now up and running

• http://www.bgs.ac.uk/co2/ukco2.html?

• BGS datasets are available to all partners for the project duration.

• Geology of UK north Sea & onshore, seabed sediments

• Esmond Field model has been given to Leeds for reservoir simulation to model fault influences on CO2 migration and Heriot Watt for an MSc thesis.


Fluid-rock interactions

• BGS support (Chris Rochelle) of studies at Leeds on fluid rock experiments

• Provision of petrographic specimens and materials from US analogues (Jonathan Pearce) to Edinburgh


BGS advice to policy-makers

• April 06: Discussions with Coal Authority (Jonathan Pearce)

• September 06: UKERC Energy in Eastern Europe workshop (Sam Holloway & Jonathan Pearce).

• December 06: Anglo-Italian workshop: Clean Coal Technologies: A UK-Italy perspective towards a successful zero emission strategy (Nick Riley & Jonathan Pearce).

• Advice to the DTI and DEFRA re CCS for negotiations within OSPAR and the London Convention (Sam Holloway).

• April 07: Presentations and discussions on CCS with UK Minister of Transport (Andy Chadwick Sam Holloway).


Analytical modelling• Joint paper (Andy Chadwick) with Cambridge (Mike Bickle) on

analytical modelling of CO2 flow in the Sleipner plume.


BGS plans

• Add estimates of storage capacity of North Sea oilfields and gas fields to GIS.

• Will be crude estimates based:

• for oilfields on the storage space vacated by the additional oil that could be recovered by EOR (say 7% of OIIP)

• For gas fields on the storage space vacated by the URR, discounted to take account of water invasion and other factors


BGS plans

• Ongoing discussions to build upon current CO2-water-rock investigations (e.g. with Leeds and Cambridge Universities), and explore ways to take them further.


BGS plans

• Bunter Sandstone study of storage processes: reservoir simulations and reservoir quality study.

• Petrology

• Porosity/permeability from core and logs

• Compare seismic surveys over producing Bunter Sst fields and prospective storage structures re leakage

• Further develop analytical modelling of Sleipner plume and compare with numerical simulations


BGS plans

• Investigations of fault-controlled CO2 migration in fine-grained rocks, based on analogues in central Italy.• Recently discovered quarry outcrops reveal fractures and

faults that are actively allowing volcanic CO2 to migrate to the surface.

• Quarry is thought to be an inactive kaolinite quarry, though history of development is still being researched.

• Outcrops may therefore provide information on CO2 migration through fracture-controlled permeability in fine grained rocks.

• Petrographic and geochemical investigations of fracture controls on permeability will be combined with ongoing fluid geochemistry and structural investigations at University La Sapienza Roma.

geological storage theme

Documents