Bell Creek Oil Field: A Study of Associated CO2 Storage

with a Commercial CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Project

IEAGHG Monitoring Research Network Meeting

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

San Francisco, CA

June 10–12, 2015

John Hamling

Senior Research Manager

© 2015 University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center.

AcknowledgmentThis material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy

National Energy Technology Laboratory under Award No. DE-FC26-05NT42592.

DisclaimerThis presentation was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the

United States Government. Neither the United States Government, nor any agency

thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes

any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any

information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed or represents that its use would not

infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product,

process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not

necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the

United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors

expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States

Government or any agency thereof.

Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR)

Partnership

Nine states

Four Canadian

provinces

1,382,089 square

miles

More than 100

partners

Bell Creek Field

• The Bell Creek oil field is operated by Denbury

Onshore LLC.

• CO2 is sourced from ConocoPhillips’ Lost Cabin

natural gas-processing plant and Exxon’s Shute Creek

gas-processing plant.

• The EERC, through the PCOR Partnership, is studying

associated CO2 storage with regards to a commercial

CO2 EOR project.

Site Characteristics

Bell Creek Properties

• Cretaceous Muddy Sandstone Formation

• Nearshore marine/strand plain (barrier bars)

• Approximately 4300–4500-ft depth

• Overlain by more than 3000 ft of siltstones and shales

• Average thickness 30–45 ft

• Average porosity range

– 25%–35%

• Average permeability range

– 150–1175 mD

• Low reservoir water salinity ~5000 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS)

• Oil gravity 32°–41° API

CO2 Injection Is Ongoing!!!

• Pipeline completed November 2012

• Pipeline filled February/March 2013

• First injection May 2013

• Facilities commissioned August 2013

• 1.60 million tonnes of CO2 injected through November 2014

• 1.51 million tonnes of CO2 stored through November 2014(source: Montana Board of Oil and Gas Database)

Associated CO2 Storage

The PCOR Partnership’s Integrated

Approach to Program DevelopmentFocused on Site Characterization, Modeling and Simulation, and

Risk Assessment to Guide MVA Strategy

Research Monitoring, Verification, Accounting, and

Surveillance Program Deployed at Bell Creek

Using commercial oil/gas data as a backbone to build enhanced monitoring programs and interpretations

and to validate technologies.

How do you develop MVA strategies that are

practical and meaningful at a commercial scale?

Bell Creek (above), Permian Basin Examples (below)

Near-Surface Monitoring

Soil Gas and Water Chemistry

Surveillance

Modeling and SimulationSite Characterization Assurance Monitoring

Naturally occurring variability of

soil gas and water compositions

in the near-surface environment

Provide a defensible source of

data capable of monitoring for

and characterizing anomalies

within these environments

Annual and interannual

variability of soil gas and

water chemistries

Near-surface environments,

chemistries, and mineralogy

Demonstrate safe/effective

associated storage

Demonstrate no impact to

near-surface environments

Geochemical modeling

Hydrogeological modeling

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

10.00

11.00

Nov-11 Feb-12 May-12 Aug-12 Nov-12 Feb-13 May-13 Aug-13 Nov-13 Feb-14 May-14

pH

(a

ve

rag

e)

Date

Surface Waters

Stock Wells

Residential Wells

Monitoring Wells

Baseline Operational

CO2 Injection Start

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Surface Waters

(BL)

Surface Waters (OM)

Stock Wells (BL)

Stock Wells (OM)

Residential Wells (BL)

Residential Wells (OM)

Monitoring Wells (BL)

Monitoring Wells (OM)

Co

mp

os

itio

n (a

ve

rag

e b

y w

eig

ht)

Sample Type

Bicarbonate

Sodium

Sulfate

Chloride

Calcium

Carbonate

Magnesium

Other

BL BL BL BLOM OM OM OM

Surface Waters Stock Wells Residential Wells Monitoring Wells

Near-Surface MVA

Qtr 3, 2011 Qtr 1, 2012 Qtr 3, 2012 Qtr 1, 2013 Qtr 3, 2013 Qtr 1, 2014 Qtr 3, 2014 Qtr 1, 2015 Qtr 3, 2015

Prep and Planning Baseline Operational Monitoring 1 Operational Monitoring 2

Qtr 1, 2011

• Site access

agreements

• Site

reconnaissance

• Training and

methods

development

• Equipment

procurement

• Quarterly full-field water and soil

gas sampling and analysis

• Transitioning to include monthly

soil gas sampling and analysis

at Phase 1 locations

• Monthly water and soil

gas sampling and

analysis at Phase 1

locations

• Annual full-field water

and soil gas sampling

and analysis

• Quarterly soil gas and water

sampling and analysis

alternating between select

locations (Phase 1 and 2) and

full-field events

Activity Date

Prep and Planning February-11

Baseline November-11

Operational Monitoring 1 June-13

Operational Monitoring 2 June-14

Near-Surface Monitoring at the Bell

Creek Oil Field28 Water-Sampling Locations

• Ten surface waters

• Eight stock wells

• Eight residential wells

• Two installed monitoring wells in

lowermost underground sources of

drinking water (USDW)

210 Soil Gas-Monitoring Locations

• 124 near active wells

• 56 near plugged and abandoned

(P&A) wells

• Ten interspaced locations

• Ten regional background locations

• Ten fixed-location, multidepth

soil gas profile stations

– 3.5-, 9-, and 14-ft depths

13

Challenge of Seasonable Variability

in Near-Surface Environments

14

Spring in Bell Creek

Challenge of Seasonable Variability

in Near-Surface Environments

15

Types of Analyses

• Focus water monitoring on isotopes and key indicator species identified through laboratory exposure testing and chemical modeling

– pH, alkalinity, specific conductance, etc.

– Isotopes: dD H2O, d18O H2O, tritium, d13C dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), 14C DIC

• Robust baseline data set of regional water quality

– National primary drinking water regulations (enforceable) for inorganic and organic chemicals, radionuclides

– Secondary drinking water standards (nonenforceable) taste and aesthetics: TDS, pH, aluminum, copper, iron, zinc, chloride, fluoride, sulfate, odor, etc.

• Focus soil gas monitoring on key gas indicators, processed-based characterization, and isotopes.

– Gas chromatography (GC) analyses: N2, O2, CO2, H2, H2S, CH4, CO, C2H6, C2H4, COS,

– Isotopes: d13C CO2, 14C CO2

16

Near-Surface Assurance Monitoring

• Successfully demonstrating NO IMPACT to near-surface environments.

• Chemical modeling and laboratory exposure testing indicate sufficient sensitivity to detect a

hypothetical out-of-zone fluid migration, providing area of influence transects a monitoring point.

• Monitoring program was sufficient to detect, characterize, and attribute multiple anomalies to

naturally occurring processes.

• Workflows were developed to semiautomate the analysis and characterization process that can be

adapted into site-specific intelligent monitoring approaches.

• Baseline data set spanning 18-month period prior to injection providing a scientifically defensible

data set of natural variability of near-surface environments supplemented by ~2 years of

operational monitoring data.

• First years of operational monitoring have provided key insight regarding how the research

monitoring program could be transitioned toward a more commercially viable long-term assurance-

monitoring strategy.

• Landowner relations key to success.

Subsurface MVA Program

18

Use commercial oil/gas practices and data as the backbone of the MVA strategy, then

augment with practical cost-effective techniques guided by numerical simulation.

Pulsed-Neutron Logging (PNL)

Applications

Surveillance

Modeling and SimulationSite Characterization Assurance Monitoring

Water/oil/gas saturation changes

Residual water saturation

Oil mobilization

Conformance

Storage/sweep efficiency

Guide surveillance activities (go/no go)

Vertical and lateral flow

Structural interpretation

Reservoir and overlying strata

properties

Regional variability within

reservoir and overlying zones

History match

Formation tops

Porosity

Tune and calibrate geomodel

Synthetic logs

Enhanced seismic interpretations

Monitor for out-of-zone vertical

migration (accumulation zones)

Wellbore integrity monitoring

Demonstrate safe/effective

associated CO2 storage

4 Wells4 Wells 19 Wells 4 Wells

33 Wells

Injector Time-Lapse PNL

Producer Time-Lapse PNL

More gas, less oil

3-D Seismic

Surveillance

Modeling and SimulationSite Characterization Assurance Monitoring

Gas saturation changes

Conformance

Areal extent of gas plume

Surveillance boundaries

Structural interpretation

Sequence stratigraphy and

depositional environment

Permeability barrier locations

Fault and fracture identification

Geomechanical properties from

seismic inversion

Refined history matching

Tune and calibrate the

geologic model

Geomechanical modeling and

simulation

Show that out-of-zone

migration, vertically or

laterally, is not occurring

Demonstrate safe/effective

associated CO2 storage

Geophysics Portfolio

• 3-D and 4-D surface seismic– Baseline survey (May 2013, 45 square

miles)

– Monitor survey (October 2014, 11.5

square miles)

– 4-D analysis

• 3-D and 4-D vertical seismic

profile (VSP) – Baseline survey (May 2013, 05-06 OW

and 04-03 OW)

– Monitor survey (October 2014, 04-03

OW only)

– 4-D analysis

• Passive seismic monitoring– Approaching 2 years of data collection

– First year of data processed;

interpretation is ongoing

24

Baseline and Monitor Surveys

• Current status:

– Baseline 3-D surface seismic and 3-D VSP processing and interpretation complete.

– 4-D Seismic and VSP processing and analysis are under way.

– Reprocessing of 3-D seismic and VSP is ongoing concurrent with 4-D processing.

– 4-D differencing.

– Processing hydrophone data channel on VSP.

– 4-D VSP results expected at the end of April.

– 4-D surface seismic analysis beginning.

– Second year of passive data being processed.

Image shows how the 3-D VSP

monitor survey was acquired

concurrent with the 3-D surface

monitor survey.

Only the permanent borehole

array well was acquired. 2 miles

04-03 OW

25

Integrating MVA Techniques

Surface 3-D Boundary3-D VSP

Boundary

680 Source Points

3388 Source Points

3030 Receiver Locations1 mile

Developing Successful Commercial

Monitoring StrategiesClear objectives/purpose that lead to actionable decisions.

Site-specific strategies and site-compatible technologies.

Talk to your service providers about objectives, not tools. Use due

diligence in selection (good data are a win/win).

Have sufficient expertise and resources to process, interpret, and

analyze acquired data.

Deploy cost-effective monitoring strategies with clear and robust

interpretation techniques that can enhance project.

Minimize impact to operations and manage risk/liability of

deployment.

Use commercial oil/gas data as a backbone to build enhanced

monitoring programs and interpretations and to validate

technologies.

Interpret data in context of overall project.

Enhanced value through an integrated project approach to

MVA, technical risk assessment, characterization,

modeling, and predictive simulation.

Bell Creek Summary

• Over 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 stored since May 2013.

• Practical value of research activities coupled with partner and landowner relations have been a continuing key to success.

• Successfully demonstrating site security.

• Adaptive management approach has provided a key mechanism for cost-effective, commercially viable, and practical approaches to meeting program objectives.

• Lessons learned from baseline and first years of operational monitoring coupled with an adaptive management approach are allowing for transition to a more commercially viable long-term MVA approach.

• With a focus on long-term, positive implications for commercially viable EOR with associated CO2 storage, the PCOR Partnership is developing approaches/workflows for site characterization, simulation, risk assessment, reservoir surveillance, CO2 accounting, and data interpretation and vetting new technologies and their applications.

30

EOR at the Bell Creek Oil Field

31

EOR at the Bell Creek Oil Field

Thank You!

Questions?

Contact Information

Energy & Environmental Research Center

University of North Dakota

15 North 23rd Street, Stop 9018

Grand Forks, ND 58202-9018

World Wide Web: www.undeerc.org

Telephone No. (701) 777-5472

Fax No. (701) 777-5181

John Hamling, Senior Research Manager

jhamling@undeerc.org

AcknowledgmentThis material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy

National Energy Technology Laboratory under Award No. DE-FC26-08NT43291.

DisclaimerThis presentation was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the

United States Government. Neither the United States Government, nor any agency

thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes

any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any

information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed or represents that its use would not

infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product,

process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not

necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the

United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors

expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States

Government or any agency thereof.