Quantifying the Benefit of Wellbore Leakage Potential Estimates for Prioritizing Long-Term MVA Well Sampling at a CO2 Storage Site

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 1215 - 1224
• Main Authors: Azzolina, Nicholas A, Small, Mitchell J, Nakles, David V, Glazewski, Kyle A, Peck, Wesley D, Gorecki, Charles D, Bromhal, Grant S, Dilmore, Robert M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 20.01.2015
• Subjects: Canada; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; Carbon Dioxide - chemistry; Computer Simulation; Environment; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Geology; Models, Statistical; Monte Carlo Method; Oil and Gas Fields; Permeability; Probability; Uncertainty; United States; Water Pollutants - analysis; Water Wells; Canada; United States
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/es503742n

This work uses probabilistic methods to simulate a hypothetical geologic CO2 storage site in a depleted oil and gas field, where the large number of legacy wells would make it cost-prohibitive to sample all wells for all measurements as part of the postinjection site care. Deep well leakage potential scores were assigned to the wells using a random subsample of 100 wells from a detailed study of 826 legacy wells that penetrate the basal Cambrian formation on the U.S. side of the U.S./Canadian border. Analytical solutions and Monte Carlo simulations were used to quantify the statistical power of selecting a leaking well. Power curves were developed as a function of (1) the number of leaking wells within the Area of Review; (2) the sampling design (random or judgmental, choosing first the wells with the highest deep leakage potential scores); (3) the number of wells included in the monitoring sampling plan; and (4) the relationship between a well’s leakage potential score and its relative probability of leakage. Cases where the deep well leakage potential scores are fully or partially informative of the relative leakage probability are compared to a noninformative base case in which leakage is equiprobable across all wells in the Area of Review. The results show that accurate prior knowledge about the probability of well leakage adds measurable value to the ability to detect a leaking well during the monitoring program, and that the loss in detection ability due to imperfect knowledge of the leakage probability can be quantified. This work underscores the importance of a data-driven, risk-based monitoring program that incorporates uncertainty quantification into long-term monitoring sampling plans at geologic CO2 storage sites.