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Influence of shale‐total organic content on CO 2 geo‐storage potential
Author(s) -
Arif Muhammad,
Lebedev Maxim,
Barifcani Ahmed,
Iglauer Stefan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl073532
Subject(s) - caprock , oil shale , petroleum engineering , context (archaeology) , wetting , total organic carbon , geology , adsorption , environmental science , environmental chemistry , materials science , chemistry , composite material , paleontology , organic chemistry
Shale CO 2 wettability is a key factor which determines the structural trapping capacity of a caprock. However, the influence of shale‐total organic content (TOC) on wettability (and thus on storage potential) has not been evaluated despite the fact that naturally occurring shale formations can vary dramatically in TOC, and that even minute TOC strongly affects storage capacities and containment security. Thus, there is a serious lack of understanding in terms of how shale, with varying organic content, performs in a CO 2 geo‐storage context. We demonstrate here that CO 2 ‐wettability scales with shale‐TOC at storage conditions, and we propose that if TOC is low, shale is suitable as a caprock in conventional structural trapping scenarios, while if TOC is ultrahigh to medium, the shale itself is suitable as a storage medium (via adsorption trapping after CO 2 injection through fractured horizontal wells).