CO2 leakage through an abandoned well: problem-oriented benchmarks

The efficiency and sustainability of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in deep geological formations crucially depends on the integrity of the overlying cap-rocks. Existing oil and gas wells, which penetrate the formations, are potential leakage pathways. This problem has been discussed in the literature...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inComputational geosciences Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 103 - 115
Main Authors Ebigbo, Anozie, Class, Holger, Helmig, Rainer
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Nature B.V 01.06.2007
Subjects
Abandoned wells
Benchmarks
Carbon dioxide
Gas wells
Leakage
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Numerical models
Oil wells
Storage
Studies
Supercritical fluids
Sustainability
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Summary:The efficiency and sustainability of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in deep geological formations crucially depends on the integrity of the overlying cap-rocks. Existing oil and gas wells, which penetrate the formations, are potential leakage pathways. This problem has been discussed in the literature, and a number of investigations using semi-analytical mathematical approaches have been carried out by other authors to quantify leakage rates. The semi-analytical results are based on a number of simplifying assumptions. Thus, it is of great interest to assess the influence of these assumptions. We use a numerical model to compare the results with those of the semi-analytical model. Then we ease the simplifying restrictions and include more complex thermodynamic processes including sub- and supercritical fluid properties of CO2 and non-isothermal as well as compositional effects. The aim is to set up problem-oriented benchmark examples that allow a comparison of different modeling approaches to the problem of CO2 leakage.
ISSN:1420-0597
1573-1499
DOI:10.1007/s10596-006-9033-7