Multiwell injectivity for storage of CO2 in aquifers

Abstract Geological storage of CO2 in deep saline aquifers has been suggested as a potential methodology for reducing CO2 e missions over short to medium terms. A number of projects are in operation and a larger number are being designed. However, not all aquifers are equally suitable for CO2 storage. Virtually all publications that present the criteria for selection of suitable sites for geological storage of CO2 in aquifers, consider injectivity to be among the top three criteria, with capacity and containment being the other two. Among parameters that affect injectivity, permeability can vary by the largest degree. Unfortunately, selection of storage sites with sufficient permeability that would enable injection of the desired volumes, using only one injection well–such as that achieved in Sleipner–is not always possible. When this is not possible, injectivity needs to be improved for example by increasing the contact area with the formation (e.g. through application of hydraulic fracturing or horizontal wells) and/or employing more than one injector. Recent studies indicate that multiwell injectivity does not increase linearly with the number of injectors. Instead, progressively more number of wells is required to achieve an equal increment in injection rate. It is well known, that because of the small compressibility of the water, it takes a short time for the pressure pulse from the different injectors to cause significant interference. We use this observation and suggest a well pattern that would minimize such interference effects in an open and homogeneous aquifer. Next, we develop an analytical solution, for the injectivity of multiwell systems as a function of (i) number of wells, (ii) distance between wells, and (iii) injectivity of one wel.. The analytical solution obtained for single-phase flow is applied to cases of CO2 injection in aquifers. Numerical experimentation over a wide range of parameters demonstrates the applicability of the analytical solution for two-phase flow problems. This relation is developed for homogeneous aquifers; suggesting that such a relationship may be used for scoping and screening studies early on when data us scarce, and the effect of the number of wells and/or their distance on overall injectivity is being studied. Furthermore, such a relationship allows examining the economic balance between increasing the number of wells or the distance among wells.