A SEA FLOOR GRAVITY SURVEY OF THE SLEIPNER FIELD TO MONITOR CO2 MIGRATION

Since 1996, excess CO{sub 2} from the Sleipner natural gas field has been sequestered and injected underground into a porous saline aquifer 1000 m below the seafloor. In 2002, we carried out a high precision micro-gravity survey on the seafloor in order to monitor the injected CO{sub 2}. A repeatability of 5 {micro}Gal in the station averages was observed. This is considerably better than pre-survey expectations. These data will serve as the baseline for time-lapse gravity monitoring of the Sleipner CO{sub 2} injection site. A repeat survey has been scheduled for the summer of 2005. This report covers 9/19/04 to 3/18/05. During this time, gravity and pressure modeling were completed and work graduate student Scott Nooner began writing his Ph.D. dissertation, of which this work is a the major part. Improvements to the gravimeters are also underway that will hopefully increase the measurement precision