Kingsley Dunham CentreKeyworthNottingham NG12 5GGTel 0115 936 3100

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Geological Storage Theme

BGS progress

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Web-enabled GIS

• Now up and running

• http://www.bgs.ac.uk/co2/ukco2.html?

• BGS datasets are available to all partners for the project duration.

• Geology of UK north Sea & onshore, seabed sediments

• Esmond Field model has been given to Leeds for reservoir simulation to model fault influences on CO2 migration and Heriot Watt for an MSc thesis.

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Fluid-rock interactions

• BGS support (Chris Rochelle) of studies at Leeds on fluid rock experiments

• Provision of petrographic specimens and materials from US analogues (Jonathan Pearce) to Edinburgh

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BGS advice to policy-makers

• April 06: Discussions with Coal Authority (Jonathan Pearce)

• September 06: UKERC Energy in Eastern Europe workshop  (Sam Holloway & Jonathan Pearce).

• December 06: Anglo-Italian workshop: Clean Coal Technologies: A UK-Italy perspective towards a successful zero emission strategy (Nick Riley & Jonathan Pearce).

• Advice to the DTI and DEFRA re CCS for negotiations within OSPAR and the London Convention (Sam Holloway).

• April 07: Presentations and discussions on CCS with UK Minister of Transport (Andy Chadwick Sam Holloway).

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Analytical modelling• Joint paper (Andy Chadwick) with Cambridge (Mike Bickle) on

analytical modelling of CO2 flow in the Sleipner plume.

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BGS plans

• Add estimates of storage capacity of North Sea oilfields and gas fields to GIS.

• Will be crude estimates based:

• for oilfields on the storage space vacated by the additional oil that could be recovered by EOR (say 7% of OIIP)

• For gas fields on the storage space vacated by the URR, discounted to take account of water invasion and other factors

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BGS plans

• Ongoing discussions to build upon current CO2-water-rock investigations (e.g. with Leeds and Cambridge Universities), and explore ways to take them further.

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BGS plans

• Bunter Sandstone study of storage processes: reservoir simulations and reservoir quality study.

• Petrology

• Porosity/permeability from core and logs

• Compare seismic surveys over producing Bunter Sst fields and prospective storage structures re leakage

• Further develop analytical modelling of Sleipner plume and compare with numerical simulations

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BGS plans

• Investigations of fault-controlled CO2 migration in fine-grained rocks, based on analogues in central Italy.• Recently discovered quarry outcrops reveal fractures and

faults that are actively allowing volcanic CO2 to migrate to the surface.

• Quarry is thought to be an inactive kaolinite quarry, though history of development is still being researched.

• Outcrops may therefore provide information on CO2 migration through fracture-controlled permeability in fine grained rocks.

• Petrographic and geochemical investigations of fracture controls on permeability will be combined with ongoing fluid geochemistry and structural investigations at University La Sapienza Roma.