The Geomechanical and Fault Activation Modeling during CO2 Injection into Deep Minjur Reservoir, Eastern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere is one of the major causes of global warming. The most viable method to control the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is to capture and permanently sequestrate the excess amount of CO2 in subsurface geological reservoirs. The injection of CO2 gives rise to pore pressure buildup. It is crucial to monitor the rising pore pressure in order to prevent the potential failure of the reservoir and the subsequent leakage of the stored CO2 into the overburden layers, and then back to the atmosphere. In this paper, the Minjur sandstone reservoir in eastern Saudi Arabia was considered for establishing a coupled geomechanical model and performing the corresponding stability analysis. During the geomechanical modeling process, the fault passing through the Minjur and Marrat layers was also considered. The injection-induced pore-pressure and ground uplift profiles were calculated for the case of absence of a fault across the reservoir, as well as the case with a fault. The stability analysis was performed using the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion. In the current study, the excessive increase in pore pressure, in the absence of geological faults, moved the reservoir closer to the failure envelope, but in the presence of geological faults, the reservoir reached to the failure envelope and the faults were activated. The developed geomechanical model provided estimates for the safe injection parameters of CO2 based on the magnitudes of the reservoir pore pressure and stresses in the reservoir.