PTRC carries out 4D survey on CO2 project in Canada

Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) has carried out a 4D monitor survey of the Aquistore CO2 injection project in Saskatchewan, Canada. 

The project will monitor carbon dioxide captured at the Boundary Dam Power Station that has been injected into the Aquistore wells 3.4 km below the surface in deep saline acquifers. 

Erik Nickel, director of operations at PTRC said that this was the latest of several surveys, with the first few done before the injection well and observation well were drilled. ‘The first surveys were meant to provide a baseline, prior to the injection of any CO2,’ Nickel said, ‘Then we look at certain tonnages of CO2 injected to take another survey to monitor the plume. Right now, we’re seeing about 260,000-270,000 tonnes injected here. The last picture, at about 141,000 tonnes, showed it be on the order of about 300 to 400 m across. 

‘It’s filling up the porous zones. It’ll be interesting when we see almost a doubling of what we had before. The plume probably won’t double in size, but I’m guessing it will be 400 to 500 m across. It’s elongated, in a northwest to southeast direction. The important thing is that we’re not seeing it rise up hole anyway at all, or shoot off in one direction,’ he added. 

There is a permanent geophone array installed around the Aquistore site as well as a network of fibreoptic cables with the aim of finding the optimal signal-to-noise ratio. 

‘The CO2 injection has been pretty steady at 400 to 500 tonnes per day, but there are plans to increase the injection rate to 3000 tonnes per day to see that, if necessary, this injection well can handle that amount,’ said Nickel. 

Nickel added there has been zero induced seismic activity at Aquistore.