The impact of geomechanics on monitoring techniques for CO2 injection and storage

Surface seismic and vertical seismic profile (VSP) time-lapse surveys have demonstrated the capability of temporally and spatially tracking the storage of CO2 within the subsurface geological formation, however quantitatively linking changes in seismic attributes to fluid flow remains problematic. This study uses coupled geomechanical-fluid flow models to generate seismic attributes and compares the impact of geomechanics on seismic attributes to non-coupled models. Prediction of seismic data may be important in predictive modelling of fluid flow properties for CO2 storage projects and aid in the design of monitoring programs, and the calibration of predictive models. Incorporating geomechanical impacts on seismic attribute predictions will increase the level of sophistication of fluid flow models and may improve the predictive capabilities of such model. Future work will involve the analysis of seismic attribute prediction using a full study of material, geometric and fault properties in the existing model, and extension of this work to a full field North Sea depleted field model, using the initial work as a benchmark.