DESIGN & DRILLING OF A CO2 INJECTION WELL INTO THE MT. SIMON

The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC), Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) and Schlumberger Carbon Services are collaborating to design and build a facility to safely inject and permanently store CO2. As a large scale DOE demonstration project the Illinois Basin – Decatur Project will inject one million metric tones of CO2 over a three year period into the Mt. Simon Sandstone.

Like most large-scale projects, there are many uncertainties about the reservoir due to a lack of offset wells in the area. In order to get the sequestration performance needed, while managing overall project costs, a workflow is followed that integrates the overall risks, management processes, modeling, design and verification. This process, which Schlumberger calls the “CarbonWorkFlow Process”, enables reduced cycle time, reduced risk and lower uncertainty while decreasing costs and increasing performance.

As with any sequestration project, the drilling of the injection well is a high risk, high cost effort that is a key component of the project and the workflow. The well not only accesses the reservoir and houses the required completion, but it is also an integral part of the verification process. The proper design incorporates various risk aspects from an operations standpoint as well as from a monitoring standpoint. This presentation will explain how the design of the well fits into the overall workflow. As well an overview of the construction to date will be reviewed.