Abstract
Absence of a permeability log necessary to assess reservoir quality and injectivity for potential CO2 storage in the heterogeneous and complex South Georgia Rift (SGR) basin provides the motivation for this study. The focus of this study was on the Triassic-Jurassic red beds buried, entrenched beneath the Cretaceous-Cenozoic Coastal Plain sediments. Moreover, the significant cost typically between $10 M and $100 M associated with drilling and logging for in situ permeability coupled with the limited resolution of existing core data further makes this work necessary. The purpose is to relate, use the interpretation of the predicted permeability distribution to assess feasibility for safe and long-term CO2 sequestration. This study also intends to establish the impacts of active and passive tectonism that has shaped and/or re-shaped the evolution of the basin on the present-day permeability. A methodology was applied that utilizes the pore space and geohydraulic properties of the reservoir from existing laboratory and well data to produce a newly derived permeability log. It shows a non-uniform distribution with depths possibly due to geologic changes in the confined and heterogeneous red beds. The derived log displays characteristics consistent with observations from the porosity and resistivity logs. The interpretation of these logs provides evidence for the presence of low permeable, tightly cemented, and compacted red beds. We conclude that the low permeability aided by the low resistivity depicted in the red beds suggests increased confining stress and reduced injectivity, and that the uncharacteristically low permeability reflects a deformed basin shaped with episodes of uplift and erosion.
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Acknowledgements
We thank John Shafer, Mike Waddell, Adrian Addison, Duke Brantley, Mark Evans, David Heffner, Scott Howard, and Bill Clendenin for their contributions to this study. We also thank Professor Manika Prasad of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, for access to their Rock Physics Laboratory facilities. The thin sections that we used were provided by Dr. James Rine of the Weatherford Laboratories. We acknowledge the helpful comments from our anonymous reviewers. This material is based upon work supported by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under Award Number DE-FE0001965. This paper was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.
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Akintunde, O.M., Knapp, C.C. & Knapp, J.H. Permeability prediction in the South Georgia rift basin–applications to CO2 storage and regional tectonics. Environ Earth Sci 81, 391 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10522-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10522-6