Assessing CO2 Migration Within Faults During Megatonne‐ Scale Geologic Carbon Dioxide Storage in Offshore Texas
Name
Water Resources Research - 2025 - Saló‐Salgado - Assessing CO2 text CO 2 Migration Within Faults During.pdf
Description
Published version
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8.7 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1000429e9a6cbf019138cf129cb3cbad
Author(s)
Saló‐Salgado, Lluís
Silva, Josimar A
Lun, Lisa
Rogers, Christie M
Davis, J Steven
Juanes, Ruben
Date Issued
May 8, 2025
Journal
Water Resources Research
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Citation
Saló-Salgado, L., Silva, J. A., Lun, L., Rogers, C. M., Davis, J. S., & Juanes, R. (2025). Assessing CO2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}$ migration within faults during megatonne-scale geologic carbon dioxide storage in offshore Texas. Water Resources Research, 61, e2024WR037059.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Recent studies indicate that Miocene‐age reservoirs offshore Texas are promising candidates for industrial‐scale geologic carbon sequestration. Fault‐bounded hydrocarbon traps are common, and faults may be less competent seals than the low‐permeability sediments overlying the reservoirs; this means that faults may limit the amount of that can be permanently sequestered. Here, we conduct flow simulations of megatonne‐scale injection next to a major, reservoir‐bounding growth fault, and evaluate (a) where fault sealing capacity is exceeded, and (b) where the migrates after it enters the fault zone. We use a geologic model that includes the key structural features of fault‐bounded systems near‐offshore Texas, and consider both homogeneous and layered top seals (TSs). To model fault petrophysics, we apply a new, general methodology for faults in normally‐consolidated, relatively shallow (depth km) sequences that populates three‐dimensional realizations of the fault core with sand and clay smears. We quantify uncertainty in the directional components of the fault permeability tensor and multiphase flow fault properties. We evaluate the sensitivity of fault migration to these properties, and show that the capillary entry pressure is exceeded in the lower portion of the fault. This leads to fault migration being controlled by effective fault permeability. For the cases considered, the amount of remaining in the injection formation after 1,000 years exceeds 93%, and does not migrate to depths shallower than the TS. These results suggest that, in the Miocene section, faults partially offsetting the TS do not act as preferential conduits.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/ 2024WR037059
