CO2 Storage in Subsurface Formations: Impact of Formation Damage

Abstract

The success of CO2 storage projects largely depends on addressing formation damage, such as salt precipitation, hydrate formation, and fines migration. While analytical models for reservoir behaviour during CO2 storage in aquifers and depleted gas fields are widely available, models addressing formation damage and injectivity decline are scarce. This work aims to develop an analytical model for CO2 injection in a layer-cake reservoir, considering permeability damage. We extend Dietz’s model for gravity-dominant flows by incorporating an abrupt permeability decrease upon the gas-water interface arrival in each layer. The exact Buckley-Leverett solution of the averaged quasi-2D (x, z) problem provides explicit formulae for sweep efficiency, well impedance, and skin factor of the injection well. Our findings reveal that despite the induced permeability decline and subsequent well impedance increase, reservoir sweep efficiency improves, enhancing storage capacity by involving a larger rock volume in CO2 sequestration. The formation damage factor d, representing the ratio between damaged and initial permeabilities, varies from 0.016 in highly damaged rock to 1 in undamaged rock, resulting in a sweep efficiency enhancement from 1–3% to 50–53%. The developed analytical model was applied to predict CO2 injection into a depleted gas field.