Improving CCS Exploitation in Saline Aquifers by Means of Accelerated Simulation Runs

Short- and long-term storage capacity constitutes the dominant property of a CCS reservoir. Once a volumetric model derived estimate of the capacity has been obtained, a detailed dynamic model is setup to investigate the optimal injection schedule according to operational, commercial and business constraints. A single trial run, among hundreds runs needed, typically takes many hours to complete due to the compositional fluid modeling approach utilized. This work investigates the applicability of a black oil fluid model approach which allows CCS simulation runs to be executed much faster compared to the conventional compositional approach, thus allowing for many more scenarios of increased complexity to be examined and eventually arriving to exploitation of the maximum possible storage capacity under the most efficient storage mechanisms. This way, small operators who do not have access to high performance computing can derive optimal development plans and turn CCS targets of marginal economic benefit to exploitable ones.