Oslo conference on CCS

The United States Department of Energy recently awarded the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium a contract to begin a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Decatur, Illinois—the first of its kind in North America wherein an unprecedented amount of "non oil- and gas-related" CO2 will be stored in a saline formation.

CCS is a method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in which CO2 is captured from large stationary sources, compressed into a fluid, transported, and stored underground in depleted reservoirs, deep saline formations, or unminable coal seams.

As a primary partner, Schlumberger Carbon Services will manage the complete design, construction, and operation of the storage portion of this project, using oilfield subsurface evaluation and integrated project management techniques. The Illinois State Geological Survey and Archer Daniels Midland are also major partners.

As a method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 1 million tons of CO2 currently bound for the atmosphere will be captured from an Archer Daniels Midland ethanol plant and injected into the Mount Simon formation—a geological structure spanning the states of Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio—over a period of three years. The project is designed to test and demonstrate the ability of a geological formation to safely, permanently, and economically store considerable amounts of CO2. It will help to form design and safety regulations for future CCS projects.

Schlumberger Carbon Services was the only oil- and gas-related company selected as a project partner. "We will leverage our expertise and technology in all aspects of the subsurface portion of this project," says Dwight Peters, Schlumberger Carbon Services business manager for the United States. "To do this, a wide range of Schlumberger technology will be deployed."

The following Schlumberger services are proposed: Q technology for simultaneous acquisition of surface and borehole seismic data Well Services CO2-resistant cements for long-term hydraulic wellbore isolation Water Services "Westbay" modular, multilevel groundwater instrumentation system Petrel and ECLIPSE software packages to model and simulate risk scenarios

Schlumberger Carbon Services President David White explains, "We've been entrusted with this project not only because of our oilfield expertise but also our years of investment in CCS research, our global involvement and commitment in CCS projects, and our Carbon Services organization that was put in place to pursue this as a future business."

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