The business case for Carbon Sequestration and Storage is challenging, and that is the reason why there is a huge drive to come up with ideas to carry out the process of monitoring as cost-effectively as possible. That is where start-up SpotLight comes in.
Co-founded by two former CGG employees and based in Massy, France, SpotLight has developed a new way to drastically reduce the operational and financial footprint of CO2 plume monitoring.
Proven onshore already, the company will now trial the new methodology offshore at INEOS & Wintershall’s Greensand CO2 injection pilot in the Danish sector.
“The silver bullet,” according to founder Habib Al Khatib, “is the fact that we know where the CO2 is injected. We can then model and predict how the seismic response will be. As such, we aim to put simulation at the heart of our monitoring strategy. Since CO2 is generating a strong 4D response, we can detect very frequently the reservoir behaviour at a strategic location and compare it to the simulation to validate the model, instead of acquiring a full 4D seismic survey.”
Validation of the simulated response will only require a fixed array of conventional receivers installed in such a way to maximise signal to noise ratio. The monitoring exercise then entails performing several shots from one location (spot).
If the results of the monitoring survey confirm what the simulation exercise predicted, no further action is needed. Only when the results deviate from the simulation outcomes, which may indicate that CO2 is migrating in an unanticipated direction, more expensive monitoring tools such as 4D seismic may be required.