Application of Double-Difference Seismic Tomography to Carbon Sequestration Monitoring at the Aneth Oil Field, Utah

Minerals

Brent Slaker¹  Erik Westman²  Kray Luxbacher² 

[1] Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA;

关键词: carbon sequestration;    tomography;    double-difference;    MVA;   

DOI  :  10.3390/min3040352

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Double difference seismic tomography was performed using travel time data from a carbon sequestration site at the Aneth oil field in southeast Utah as part of a Department of Energy initiative on monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) of sequestered CO₂. A total of 1211 seismic events were recorded from a borehole array consisting of 23 geophones. Artificial velocity models were created to determine the likelihood of detecting a CO₂ plume with an unfavorable event and receiver arrangement. In tests involving artificially modeled ray paths through a velocity model, ideal event and receiver arrangements clearly show velocity reductions. When incorporating the unfavorable event and station locations from the Aneth Unit into synthetic models, the ability to detect velocity reductions is greatly diminished. Using the actual, recorded travel times, the Aneth Unit results show differences between a synthetic baseline model and the travel times obtained in the field, but the differences do not clearly indicate a region of injected CO₂. MVA accuracy and precision may be improved through the use of a receiver array that provides more comprehensive ray path coverage, and a more detailed baseline velocity model.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.