A novel technique for obtaining representative water samples during CO2 core-flooding experiments on chalk at reservoir conditions

There is a huge potential for using CO2 gas to recover additional oil after water flooding in reservoir chalk. However, the injection of CO2 into chalk reservoirs will disturb the chemical equilibrium between formation water, injection water and chalk. A proper understanding of these CO2-induced interactions and the resulting changes in the physical properties at representative reservoir conditions is required. Unfortunately, reliable chemical data are rare because data cannot be acquired directly at reservoir conditions with present-day techniques. In published experiments, water samples are in many cases obtained at atmospheric conditions with the aid of a back-pressure regulator. Thus, water samples are not representative of in situ reservoir conditions and if proper care is not taken, the collected data cannot be used to judge the magnitude of the chemical reactions taking place at reservoir conditions. However, in some cases water obtained at laboratory conditions can give information on in situ reservoir conditions by using geochemical speciation models to account for dissolved gases that are lost from the effluents during sampling (Bachu & Adams 2003)

Cement Self-Healing as a Result of CO2 Leakage

Avoiding CO2 leakages from storage reservoirs is crucial to ensure safe and cost-efficient Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This can only be done if effort is made to maintain well integrity throughout the entire life-cycle of a well. Cement integrity is especially important, since the interfaces between cement and rock or casing have been identified as weak links in today's well construction. The present paper focuses on the healing of fractures in well cement when the material is exposed to a CO2-brine water-alternating-gas (WAG) flooding scheme. Specimen characterization using computed tomography combined with electron microscopy documents the self-healing procedure in detail for a composite cement-rock specimen subjected to a WAG flooding scheme. The study revealed volumetric data on self-healing of cement cracks and chemical changes in the specimen as well as in aqueous chemistry upon CO2 exposure. The measured aqueous chemistry suggests CO2-cement interaction to be less pronounced with time thereby together with the observed cement self-healing suggesting that the risk of compromising the safety of a storage site by cement-CO2 chemical reactions is minimal.publishedVersio