Carbon Sequestration
Carbon capture and storage, or sequestration, is a process that captures carbon dioxide emissions from sources like power plants and stores it underground so that it will not enter the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide is stored in geologic formations that include oil and gas reservoirs and deep saline reservoirs – structures that have stored crude oil, natural gas, brine and carbon dioxide for millions of years.
On Dec 10, 2010, the EPA issued a rule that established a new well class, Class VI. The Class VI rule established minimum technical criteria to protect underground sources of drinking water from the long-term subsurface storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). One of these criteria is to provide extensive geologic data including known or suspected faults. Another criteria is to monitor the CO2 plume over time.
To meet these EPA requirements, we perform integrated subsurface reservoir characterization evaluations before initiating the project. Then at regular intervals during the life of the project, we conduct seismic surveys to monitor CO2 gas migration in the reservoir.