Subsurface Storage Technologies

With a current focus on CO2 Storage, NER has developed new test offerings and modeling technologies to quantify near and long-term subsurface behavior during storage operations.

Aligned with Underground Injection Control (UIC) guidelines  (Class VI wells: Geological Sequestration of CO2) and Codes of Federal Regulations (Part 146, Subpart H), NER delivers state of the art measurement services to characterize CO2 storage sites and to mitigate deformation, migration, containment issues.  NER’s coupled tests quantify key parameters that control Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) behavior related to CO2/H2 injection/storage at in-situ conditions and at a variety of time/length scales. Our physics based and fully coupled testing protocols are designed such that results can directly be integrated with operators’ Monitoring, Mitigation and Verification (MMV) programs and advanced numerical models.

We have recently expanded our range of testing conditions to be able to include CO2 saturated brine floods, testing with water vapor saturated supercritical CO2, as well as dry supercritical CO2 floods displacing brines at High Temperature and High Pressure (HTHP) conditions. Along these lines, NER offers a range of HPHT testing protocols to characterize CO2 storage sites. Our workflows are proven to quantify models for near wellbore and reservoir scale applications including:

• THMC behavior of subsurface formations under HTHP
• Injectivity & Near Wellbore/Seal Integrity
• Material, Stress & Strength Anisotropy
• Porosity and Permeability variations
• Fault & Fracture conductivity/reactivation
• Mechanical Degradation, Creep & Swelling
• Compressibility & Poroelasticity
• CO2 plume migration (support of 4D seismic & resistivity monitoring)