Development of a 1,000 level Borehole Seismic Receiver Array for Characterization of CO2 Repositories

There is strong evidence that the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere is the cause of the gradual global warming process that is now being observed. There is no short term replacement for hydrocarbons as the source of energy for the three primary uses for hydrocarbons; transportation, heat and electrics power; so the CO2 will continue to be generated as hydrocarbon is continued to be burned for the foreseeable future. However, the status quo process with continued and increased consumption of hydrocarbon for energy and continued emission of increased amounts of CO2 is unacceptable. The solution must be an aggressive Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) program administrated on a worldwide basis. In order to arrest the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere the greenhouse gases must thus be captured and stored. One option is to store the CO2 in geological formations and closely monitor the repository to assure that the CO2 is not escaping into the atmosphere. The successful sequestration of CO2 in geological media is critically dependent on a precise understanding of the complexity of the repositories. Just as effective brain surgery was made possible only after high resolution brain imaging technology was developed, complex processes, such as CO2 sequestration and monitoring, will only be understood and managed in detail if high resolution reservoir imaging technology is available to assess and evaluate these processes. It has been shown that borehole seismology is technically able to map geologic formations in outstanding detail in 3D. It has also been shown that borehole seismology can monitoring fluid and gas injection processes using three component data. Currently borehole seismic techniques are however limited in their use for mapping and monitoring the injection of CO2 by the limited number of levels and by the fragile electronics placed in the boreholes. We are proposing to design a 1,000 level drill pipe deployed borehole seismic 3C receiver array system using fiber optic geophone technology, which have been shown to have a better sensitivity and a lower noise floor than standard sensors, and build a single level prototype in Phase I of this project. The 1,000 level systems will allow the fine interpod spacing required to properly sample the compressional and shear wave fields. The all metal clamping system using drill pipe hydraulics and fiber optic receivers manufactured using standard high temperature fibers will allow the design and manufacturing of receiver arrays that can operate to temperatures to 200