The

Eect of CO2-Saturated Brine on the ConducHvity of Wellbore-Cement

Mileva Radonjic Tevk Yalcinkaya, Nnamdi Agbasimalo, Abiola Olabode, Tao Tao and Dinara Dussenova

Louisiana State University Tel: +1-225-578-6042; fax: +1-225-578-6039
E-mail address: mileva@lsu.edu
Cra* & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering

CCS: Capacity, Types of Storage

US Department of Energy, www.doe.gov

Depleted Oil and Gas Reservoirs

Source: Carbon Capture Project, www.co2captureproject.org/about_storage.html

Deep Saline Aquifers

Many abandoned wells give access to the reservoir Subsurface geology is known ExisHng infrastructure reduce cost

H i g h s t o r a g e C a p a c i t y (*3,634-13,909 billion tons for North America)

Limited Capacity (*152 billion tons for North Subsurface geology is not America) thoroughly known-risks Abandoned wells top risks for the CCS projects because of a possible leakage

Containment Trapping - Risk

hSps://www.crc.gov.au/InformaHon/default.aspx)

1. 99% of injected CO2 must remain trapped for this technology to be eecHve over a minimum 500yrs period. 2. In the injecHon period, trapping is only provided by physical barrier systems such as CAP-ROCK and WELLBORE CEMENT.
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Motivation
More than 8,000 wells in the GOM have sustained casing pressure. (U.S. Federal Register, 2010) 14,477 wells out of the 316,439 wells in Alberta, Canada are leaking. (Watson & Bachu, 2009) CO2 sequestraHon cannot be carried out in the presence of leaky wells.

MoHvaHon
ExisHng imperfecHons in cement sheath can endanger safe and long-term containment of CO2 in the subsurface.
Primary ObjecHve

To invesHgate the change in the fracture aperture when exposed to CO2 saturated brine. Fracture aperture will aect the overall hydraulic conducHvity of wellbore materials. Secondary ObjecHve

To evaluate porosity alteraHons in cement when exposed to acidic brine using material characterizaHon techniques. Porosity of cement is important since it is related with permeability (strongly Hed with zonal isolaHon) and strength of cement (mechanical integrity).
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Consequences of failure of wellbores

Total failure of the sequestraHon project ContaminaHon of Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW) AcidicaHon of soils with adverse eects on vegetaHon Geo-mechanical disrupHons of the subsurface