Application of the Storage Resources Management System to a regional open aquifer using a notional project

Storable quantities are classified and categorized using the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Storage Resource Management System (SRMS). A major challenge for CCS large scale deployment is that the volumetric and flow simulation methods’ storable quantities estimates can be very different. The SRMS is a project-based system, meaning that storable quantities are to be delivered by a specified CO₂ storage project, or notional project for prospective resources. We evaluate the CO₂ Storage resources of the Basal aquifer of Western Canada using a notional project. We estimate them by a combination of flow and volumetric methods to capture the pressure response of the injection. For our notional project targeting 30% regional pressurization above initial pressure, the Prospective Storage Resources of the Canadian part of the Basal Aquifer range between 19 Gt (1U) to 32 Gt (3U) with 25 Gt (2U) as our best case, with a storage efficiency ranging from 0.46% to 0.52%. To illustrate the importance of setting a notional project, we show that the Basal Aquifer's resources are halved with an alternative notional project where the regional pressurization is limited to 15%. These results concur to conclude that resources are intimately related to specifications of a project, which is a key element to help framing the deployment of CCS in a specific setting.