From Injectivity to Integrity Studies of CO2 Geological Storage - Chemical Alteration Effects on Carbonates Petrophysical and Geomechanical Properties

The technical and economical success of a CO2 geological storage project requires the preservation of the site injectivity and integrity properties over its lifetime. Unlike conventional hydrocarbon gas injection, CO2 injection implies geochemical reactions between the reactive brine and the in situ formations (reservoir and cap rock) leading to modifications of their petrophysical and geomechanical properties. This paper underlines the experimental difficulties raised by the low permeability of samples representative either of the cap rock itself or at least of transition zones between the reservoir and the effective cap rock. Acidification effects induced by CO2 injection have been studied using an experimental procedure of chemical alteration, which ensures a homogeneous dissolution pattern throughout the rock sample and especially avoids any wormholing process that would lead to erroneous measurements at the core scale. Porosity, permeability and geomechanical properties of outcrop and field carbonate samples of various permeability levels have been measured under their native state and different levels of alteration. The present work has been conducted within the framework of ANR GeoCarbone-INJECTIVITY and GeoCarbone-INTEGRITY projects. Each experimental step: chemical alteration, petrophysical measurements and geomechanical testing, is considered from the point of view of injectivity and integrity issues. The obtained experimental data show clear trends of chemically induced mechanical weakening.