Agenda

Session Chairperson(s):

This session aims to explore workflows for CO2 storage site selection and characterisation for saline aquifers and depleted hydrocarbon fields. From understanding the differences and similarities between conventional oil and gas workflows to those used to mature CO2 storage opportunities, from regional screening to prospect level identification.

CO2 storage candidates site selection is a key stage on which various types of subsurface and surface data are reviewed, analysed, and assessed. This would include examining the major risks and uncertainty factors on the subsurface: containment (geological faults and seals to non-geological factors, legacy and future wells), capacity estimates, economic transport and injectivity rates, monitorability and non-technical risk (stakeholder alignment). The outcome of this critical stage is ranking various storage sites to choose the optimum CO2 storage considering technical, economic, and environmental perspectives. 

Session Chairperson(s):

Once a candidate reservoir is selected after the site selection process, assessing its storage capacity and the associated injectivity would be the main challenges to address before any CCS or CCUS moves further.

What are the methods for assessments? Be it probabilistic or deterministic, we would like to know what are their pros and cons, their uncertainties. Is there a variability or time dependence on the capacity and injectivity?

Finally, how to assess the economical rate of injectivity and what are the challenges?

Through this session, we would like to elaborate on these aspects as we broaden our understanding of its workings. 

Session Chairperson(s):

CCS is already a reality with flagship projects developed in different regions. However, we need to increase the rate and scale of CCS projects to mitigate climate change. This breakout session will allow participants to share ideas, experiences, and findings about potential incentives, policies, enabling technologies and business models that accelerate CCS implementation. In this interactive session, participants can join their preferred thematic groups and collectively come up with future direction insights. 

Session Chairperson(s):

To ensure safe and effective CO2 storage, an integrated containment risk assessment (CRA) is critical to identify all potential threats that could lead to loss of containment. Passive barriers like seals which reduce the likelihood of CO2 migration out of the storage site should be evaluated. A key question is whether the trap and seal are adequate and sufficient for long-term containment of the carbon dioxide. This requires quantifying the trap integrity including the geometry and the seal. The seal integrity analysis includes an assessment of the top seal formation/formations and any faults that may be integral to the trap containment. Further barrier assessments require geological, geomechanical, dynamic, and reactive transport modelling. Active monitoring barriers (sensor, decision logic, corrective measure) are also identified as part of the CRA and selected based on the severity of the containment threats. This in turn informs the design of any Measurement, Monitoring and Verification (MMV) programme.

Session Chairperson(s):

CO2 storage requires well characterised reservoirs to ensure long-term storage of CO2. To verify CO2 storage performance and enable early corrective measures, comprehensive, risk-based MMV programmes are critical.

MMV is the critical element that transforms a disposal operation into a long-term storage operation.  Safe and permanent storage has been demonstrated in Saskatchewan, Canada by both the Aquistore project, with over 400,000 tonnes of CO2 injected to-date and the Weyburn CO2 EOR/Storage project, with over 40 million tonnes stored since 2000.

As well as in Alberta, Canada by the Quest CCS project, which has injected over 6M tonnes since 2015.  These and other CCS projects, in addition to many Permian Basin EOR projects have designed and implemented robust MMV programmes. MMV has shown that CO2 can be safely stored within the subsurface and the ability to track the sequestered volumes has been widely proven.

Current day MMV programmes utilise a comprehensive containment risk assessment, have extensive spatial and temporal coverage, and are adaptable over time. Some of the challenges include: 1) the integration of MMV with standard well, reservoir and facilities management, 2) enabling real-time exception diagnostics, and 3) lowering the cost of long-term surveillance.

Session Chairperson(s):

Scientific consensus has established the indisputable requirement for urgent growth of industrial CCS in order to get on track to achieve the targets set out in the COP21 Paris Agreement. This session will explore the drivers delivering the current CCS project pipeline and the enablers that must be put in place for industry and policy to converge to reach a CCS tipping point. CCS planning must ensure that technology commercialisation is at the centre of policy strategy, where the private and public sector can collaborate for wide scale deployment. The three technical speakers will seek to develop key themes covering storage certification process and regulation, carbon credit and trading mechanisms, CCS hubs, markets for blue products decarbonised by CCS, and pace of CCS project delivery compared to Net Zero ambition.