Geological and Technical Foundations of Offshore CO2 Storage in Depleted Reservoirs
Abstract
Depleted offshore oil and gas reservoirs are compelling carbon dioxide (CO2) storage targets because their traps and seals are field-proven and their geology is unusually well constrained by decades of wells, cores, and 3D seismic. Offshore deployment also reduces onshore land-use conflicts and can repurpose platforms, pipelines, and selected wells after CO2-service qualification, trimming costs and schedules. Technically, prior depletion creates pressure headroom; most candidate intervals lie ≥800-1000 m where CO2 is supercritical, and many reservoirs (e.g., Miocene sandstones) offer high injectivity; challenges include higher marine logistics costs and the need for robust remote monitoring. Case studies underline both potential and practice: Sleipner (Norwegian North Sea) has stored >15 Mt with repeated 4D seismic confirming containment beneath a thick shale caprock, whereas Snøhvit (Barents Sea) required an early shift to a secondary interval after faster-than-expected pressure buildup, illustrating the value of contingency planning. Emerging Gulf of Mexico hubs target high-porosity sandstones but should accommodate growth faults and salt tectonics through conservative pressure envelopes and geomechanical screening. A disciplined workflow is essential, integrating legacy data, applying screening thresholds, retrofitting infrastructure for CO2 service, and designing injection within safe pressure limits, sometimes paired with brine production. This review highlights the…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Current state and future directions for deep learning based automatic seismic fault interpretation: A systematic review
- Physics of Partially Saturated Porous Media: Residual Saturation and Seismic-Wave Propagation
- Modern Imaging Using Seismic Reflection Data
- Effects of marine seismic surveys on free-ranging fauna: a systematic literature review
- A review of the recent seismic activity in the southern part of egypt (upper egypt)
- A review of research on mechanism of seismic attenuation and energy compensation
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.