Plaisant, Alberto

The general acceptance of the CO 2 geological storage by stakeholders passes through the assessment and mi- tigation of risks, potentially induced or increased by the disposal activity. Injection of moderate to large quantities of CO 2 in the sub-surface may unbalance local stress and trigger earthquakes if faults are critically stressed, condition that is not easily verifiable. Pilot sites are therefore the best way to proceed further in order to address such challenging issues. In such cases, the reconnaissance of faults and seismicity in the sub-surface, before the onset of activity, is mandatory. In this paper, we present studies carried out in the site where the Sotacarbo Fault Lab is going to be installed. This facility will be located in a very low seismic hazard region of central Mediterranean, where reports on historical large earthquakes are poor. We show results from a series of experiments aimed to monitor the background seismicity around the pilot site. As expected, seismicity is almost absent down to small magnitude close to the future injection-test well. Further seismic imaging of the sub- surface layers obtained by ambient noise tomography offers the ability to resolve the presence of a seismicity- free fault located in the first 200 m below the surface, of which the last episode of activity is difficult to assess. Our results encourage the use of this site to follow the response of the system to injection of small quantity of CO2.

The results provided by this study contribute to the geological characterization of a potential caprock-reservoir system for CO2 storage in the experimental area of the mining district of the Sulcis Coal Basin (south-western Sardinia, Italy). The work is aimed to improve the knowledge of the petrographic and petrophysical characteristics of the siliciclastic and carbonate geological formations that make up the potential caprock-reservoir system. Core samples from a number of wells drilled in the study area for mining purposes were analyzed especially for texture and physical properties (longitudinal velocity, density, porosity, and permeability). The preliminary integrated petrographic and petrophysical characterizations indicate that the Upper Paleocene to Early Eocene potential carbonate reservoir is heterogeneous but presents suitable reservoir zones for CO2. A preliminary analysis of the potential caprock siliciclastic lithologies of the Middle Eocene to Lower Oligocene suggests that they appear suitable for CO2 confinement. Finally, to account for the stability of the investigated area, an accurate geodynamical study of south-western Sardinia was carried out using global navigation satellite system and advanced differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar methodologies in order to estimate vertical and horizontal crustal displacements. The study area results stable, since it is characterized by surface crustal horizontal and vertical velocities smaller than 1 mm/year and few mm/year, respectively.

The Sulcis Basin is an area situated in SW Sardinia (Italy) and is a potential site for the development of CCS in Italy. This paper illustrates the preliminary results of geological characterization of fractured carbonate reservoir (Miliolitico Fm.) and the sealing sequence, composed by clay, marl, and volcanic rocks, with a total thickness of more than 900 m. To characterize the reservoir-caprock system an extensive structural-geological survey at the outcrop was conducted. It was also performed a study of the geochemical monitoring, to define the baseline conditions, measuring CO2 concentrations and flux in the study site.

The selection of a CO2 geologic storage site requires the choice of a study site suitable for the characterization in order to create a robust experimental database especially regarding the spatial petrophysical heterogeneities and elasto-mechanical properties of the rocks that make up a potential caprock-reservoir system. In our study the petrophysical and elasto-mechanical characterization began in a previously well drilled area in the northern part of the Sulcis coal basin (Nuraxi Figus area - SW Sardinia - Italy) where crucial geologic data were recovered from high-quality samples from stratigraphic wells and from mining galleries. The basin represents one of the most important Italian carbon reserves characterized by a great mining potential. In the study area, the Middle Eocene - Lower Oligocene Cixerri Fm. made up of terrigeneous continental rocks and the Upper Thanetian - Lower Ypresian Miliolitico Carbonate Complex in the Sulcis coal basin have been identified respectively as potential caprock and reservoir for CO2 storage. Petrophysical and geophysical investigations were carried out by a great number of laboratory tests on the core samples and in situ measurements on a mining gallery in order to characterize the potential caprock-reservoir system and to substantially reduce geologic uncertainty in the storage site characterization and in the geological and numerical modelling for the evaluation of CO2 storage capacity. In order to better define the spatial distribution of the petrophysical heterogeneity, the seismic responses from the caprock-reservoir system formations were also analysed and correlated with the petrophysical and elasto-mechanical properties In a second step of this work, we also analysed the tectonic stability of the study area by the integrated application of remote-sensing monitoring spatial geodetic techniques. In particular, the global positioning system (GPS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (inSAR) were considered useful tools to test the tectonic stability of the storage site. We computed the crustal strain rate of the Sulcis basin starting from the horizontal and vertical velocities detected by applying the two above remote sensing techniques. At the beginning we calculated the Eurasian intra-plate velocity and position time series of some good quality permanent GPS sites present in the study area. We then compared the computed GPS height variation of these sites with the line of sight (LOS) component of InSAR permanent scatters time series detected with the aid of the small baseline (SBAS) method and located closer to the GPS stations. The horizontal components show insignificant residual intra-plate velocities ranging between 0-1 mm/y, while the vertical velocities are comprised between 0 to 2 mm/y, testifying to the stability of the area. The same remote techniques mentioned above can be used during and after the injection of the CO2 to monitor the storage site. This remote monitoring option can be effective, cheap and repeatable.

In this work we present a methodology suitable to identify a caprock-reservoir system for the CO2 storage in the Sulcis Coal Basin (SW Sardinia – Italy). The petrophysical and geophysical characterizations indicate that the potential carbonate reservoir (“Miliolitico” Fm. Auct.) located at the base of the Eocene stratigraphic sequence in the mining district of the Sulcis Coal Basin, southwestern Sardinia, is heterogeneous but presents suitable reservoir zones for the storage of the CO2. The GPS data analysis indicates that the study area is stable, since it is characterized by a surface crustal deformation smaller than 1 mm/y.