SPE Caprock Integrity for Thermal Applications Workshop

Assessment of caprock sealing capacity and monitoring its integrity during injection operations is vital for sustainable growth of the oil and gas industry. In Alberta, thermal in-situ projects rely on caprock to contain the injected fluids and pressure, and mitigate the associated environmental and safety risks. Subsurface containment loss incidents in the last decade have further highlighted the significance of caprock integrity in the appraisal, development and abandonment stages of many thermal projects for operators, regulatory bodies, service companies and stakeholders.

From a technical perspective, it is essential to incorporate an integrated multidisciplinary approach towards caprock integrity to address the complexities such as heterogeneity and constitutive behavior in response to high pressure, high temperature, formation expansion and dilation, depletion, measurements, modeling and monitoring challenges. Additionally, the use of modeling as a predictive tool and the implementation and use of monitoring also require consideration. From an asset management standpoint, certain processes, reviews and possibly teams need to be established to proactively analyze containment of fluids below caprock and provide recommendations to mitigate the risk of breaching the sealing capacity of the caprock.

In this workshop, several topics in the abovementioned areas will be discussed. Through collaborative and open communication of concerns, solutions, successes and failures, new ideas and technologies the industry can move towards proactive practices to minimize caprock integrity related incidents.