MONITORING HOW CARBONATE CEMENT DISSOLUTION AFFECTS ROCK FRAME PROPERTIES DUE TO CO2 INJECTION
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MONITORING HOW CARBONATE CEMENT DISSOLUTION AFFECTS ROCK FRAME
PROPERTIES DUE TO CO2 INJECTION
Ludmila Adam a , Jackson MacFarlane a , Kasper van Wijk b , Jeff Shragge c and Karen Higgs d
a University of Auckland, School of Environment, 3A Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand;
b University of Auckland, Department of Physics, 3A Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand;
c The University of Western Australia, School of Physics, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Australia;
d GNS Science, 1 Fairway Drive, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
Corresponding author e-mail: l.adam@auckland.ac.nz
Summary
Time-lapse seismic signatures can be used to quantify fluid saturation and pressure changes in a reservoir.
Examples of this are when seismic surveys are acquired over fields where carbon dioxide is injected for
underground storage, or to enhance oil recovery. Either way, the injection of CO2 acidifies the water,
which may dissolve and/or precipitate minerals. Understanding the impact on the rock frame from field
seismic time-lapse changes is an outstanding challenge. Here, we study the effects of carbonate-CO2 -
water reactions on the physical properties of rock samples with variable levels of carbonate cementation,
and how these effects translate to the elastic wave properties. So far, we have characterized the set of
samples (NMR, CT scanning, thin sections) and performed ultrasonic P-wave velocity measurements
with a laser ultrasonic setup on the dry samples. The first sample reacted with CO2 shows changes in
P-wave velocity, that vary spatially from significant (-20%) to the more subtle (-5%).
Introduction
Since 1960, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 has increased by 24% (Jones, 2013). Carbon dioxide
geosequestration is a proposed method to reduce the carbon emissions into the atmosphere through the
injection of this gas into the subsurface (Hepple and Benson, 2005; Bachu, 2003; Armitage et al., 2013;
Dodds et al., 2009; Litynski et al., 2009). In these projects monitoring the movement of the CO2 plume
with geochemical, and in most instances, geophysical methods will be crucial to ensure the safe storage
of this fluid in the subsurface.
As most rocks in the subsurface are water-saturated, the injection of carbon dioxide into a reservoir forms
carbonic acid. This complicates the dynamics of these reservoirs as carbonic acid will react with the rock
frame, changing the petrophysical and geochemical rock and fluid properties (Ross et al., 1982; Kharaka
et al., 2006; McGrail et al., 2006; Pruess et al., 2003). Such rock-fluid interaction can result in mineral
dissolution (Armitage et al., 2013; Vialle and Vanorio, 2011; Grombacher et al., 2012; Pimienta et al.,
2014), precipitation (Oelkers et al., 2008; Wigand et al., 2008; Vialle and Vanorio, 2011; Adam et al.,
2013), or, in some instances, produce no significant rock frame changes (Lebedev, 2013; Hangx et al.,
2013). Commonly, these changes result from the dissolution and precipitation of carbonate, evaporite
and clay minerals (Noiriel et al., 2004; Luquot and Gouze, 2009; Vialle and Vanorio, 2011; Grombacher
et al., 2012; Pimienta et al., 2014). Ultimately, the physical properties of rocks resulting from mineral-
CO2 interaction, such as porosity and permeability (Noiriel et al., 2004), may be picked up by remotely
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3rd International Workshop on Rock Physics, Perth, 13th -17th April 2015
sensed seismic waves. Therefore, the changes should be calibrated in the laboratory, in terms of the
changes seen in elastic waveforms.
In sedimentary basins, time-lapse seismic changes are used to monitor subsurface properties and move-
ment of the CO2 plume (Chadwick et al., 2005; Daley et al., 2008). However, the changes in wave
velocities are attributed to either changes in fluid saturation (Wang et al., 2000; Mikhaltsevitch et al.,
2014; Alemu et al., 2013) and/or fluid pressures (Landrø, 2001; Tura and Lumley, 1998). Geophysi-
cists have rarely interpreted time-lapse seismic wave signatures as a result of fluid-rock interactions
that change the rock frame (Ivandic et al., 2014). The most common carbon capture and sequestration
reservoir are sandstone rocks (Bachu, 2003), and in such reservoirs, carbonate cement can be pervasive.
Elastic wave velocities are highly dependent on the packing and cement in sandstone reservoirs. It is
therefore important to understand and quantify how the injection of CO2 affects the petrophysical and
time-lapse seismic properties of carbonate-cemented sandstone cores.
Here we study the petrographic and acoustic properties of a set of sandstone core samples from the
Taranaki Basin, New Zealand. We performed XRD, NMR, CT scanning, thin section petrography and
ultrasound laser measurements before and after reactions for water saturated with CO2 . We will correlate
the changes in the rock microstructure to the change in elastic properties to quantify how carbonate
cement dissolution affect 4D seismic signatures.
1 Sample descriptions
Nine samples from the Pohokura-03 well located in the offshore section of the Taranaki Basin, west of
the North Island of New Zealand (Knox, 1982; Higgs, 2009), were selected based on carbonate cement
volume. Thin section photomicrographs of four representative samples are shown in Figure 1, revealing
a predominant composition of quartz and feldspar, with differences in grain size, sorting and volume
of carbonate cement and clay minerals.. Thin section images show that carbonate cement consists of
siderite/ankerite for samples S3, S4, S5, S6; and ferroan-calcite for samples S7 and S8. Samples S1,
S2 and S18 have less than 1% carbonates, which, for the purposes of this study are clean in terms of
carbonate cement. Table 1 summarizes the porosity and permeability estimated from NMR analysis
and the volumetric carbonate cement from thin section point count analysis. An increasing volume of
carbonate cement and clays corresponds with lower permeability, but a direct correlation with porosity is
not observed. In this study, we will also look into clay minerals. Notably, rock physical property analysis
seems to indicate that clays potentially block some of the pore throats for our samples, decreasing rock
permeability which we believe could interfere with the rock-fluid interactions.
In addition to the above, we have used computerized tomography (CT) imaging, which is highly effective
in estimating the volume of carbonate cement due to the significant density contrast between carbonate
cement and quartz/feldspar grains. The CT images are also used to identify sample texture and will be
used to quantify rock physical changes before and after reactions.
Methods
Laser-based ultrasonics can illuminate the rock frame changes before and after reactions with a CO2 -
water mixture. A high-energy pulsed laser excites ultrasonic waves via thermoelastic expansion of the
sample. These waves travel through the sample and are detected using a laser vibrometer, measuring
the displacement at the sample surface due to a wave perturbation (for details see Blum et al., 2013).
The sample is moved on computerized stages and waveforms measured at 16-bits dynamic range at a
sampling rate of 1e7 samples per second. Data acquisition is automatized by PLACE, an open-source
python-package (Johnson et al., 2014). Because we are interested in changes in the rock-frame properties
we perform the experiments on dry rocks at room condition. Data acquisition consists of a rotational scan,
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3rd International Workshop on Rock Physics, Perth, 13th -17th April 2015
S1 S3
S4 S6
Figure 1: Microphotographs of four of the samples in the study showing variable carbonate cement.
Sample S1 is a clean sandstone (black minerals are pyrite), while samples S3, S4 and S6 show variable
carbonate cements, mostly seen as the black/brown minerals in the images. Q = detrital quartz, Qog =
quartz overgrowths, Ka = authigenic kaolinite, S = siderite/ankerite, Kf = K-feldspar, Pl = plagioclase
feldspar, LF = lithic fragment, AC = grain-replacive authigenic clay, Py = pyrite, B = biotite, MP =
macroporosity.
a linear scan and a 3D tomography which incorporates both. In this abstract we present the results of a
few of the rotational scans, where the source and receiver are aligned on opposite sides of the sample,
and the cylindrical sample is on an automated rotational stage (Blum et al., 2013).
Next, we will place the samples in a CO2 -water reactor bath to analyse the effect of carbonate cement dis-
solution on the rock elastic and physical properties. Up to now, only one samples was reacted. Sample S5
was exposed to a 4:1 water-CO2 mixture by volume at 200 psi for 24 hours and then dried.
Results
Examples of waveforms before reactions acquired in a rotational scan for samples S1 and S3 are plotted
in Figure 2. On visual inspection the samples appear isotropic and with moderately sorted grain size.
However, S1 has a massive texture, while S3 presents faint lamination, potentially as a result of carbonate
cemented bands. This rock texture affects the wave speeds. Wave speeds are fast parallel to the banding
(140◦ ) and slow perpendicular to the bands. By performing such high density waveform scanning the
effect of rock inhomogeneity and anisotropy are well-defined.
The P-wave velocity for all samples before reactions ranges between 2.0 and 3.7 km/s. The porosity
of the samples ranges between 7 and 12%. We observe that there is little correlation between P-wave
velocity and porosity, as well as for carbonate volume.
Laser ultrasonic rotational scans for samples S5 before and after rock-fluid reactions are plotted in Fig-
ure 3. First, observe the high repeatability of the waveforms. The most obvious decrease in P-wave
velocity (-20%) is measured in the section of the rock between 40◦ and 70◦ , potentially due to carbonate
dissolution. Finally, even though other sections of the rotational scan might not show obvious changes,
coda wave interferometry was applied to study small changes in velocity. We average P-wave velocity
change between 0◦ and 30◦ is -5%. Therefore, combining direct wave and coda wave analysis the P-wave
velocity changes due to rock-CO2 reactions can be quantified.
We have also performed preliminary estimates for changes in P-wave velocity due to fluid substitution
based on laboratory measured dry samples. We use Gassmann’s equation to estimated changes in velocity
for a rock 100% water-saturated and 100% CO2 -saturated. On average, the P-wave velocity changes by
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3rd International Workshop on Rock Physics, Perth, 13th -17th April 2015
Sample Total Clay bound permeability Carbonate Clay
porosity water (mD) minerals minerals
(%) (%) (%vol. of rock) (%vol. of rock)
S1 11.3 0.0 56.7 0.0 6.8
S2 9.3 0.0 6.45 0.7 7.2
S3 7.3 1.6 0.0097 22.7 11.4
S4 9.4 1.7 0.0544 12.3 14.8
S5 12.5 2.3 0.103 23.7 19.2
S6 6.1 5.3 0.00004 32.1 10.6
S7 9.2 0.2 11.1 14.3 7.5
S8 4.5 0.5 0.0028 21.6 9.3
S18 11.1 0.0 15.4 0.3 6.6
Table 1: Total porosity, clay bound water, and permeability as interpreted from NMR analysis. Carbon-
ate and clay volumes with respect to the total rock volume are estimated from point count thin section
petrography.
[S1] [S3]
Figure 2: Laser ultrasonic waveforms for samples S1 and S3 for a rotational scan setup. Data is acquired
every 1 degree. The first arriving energy is a direct ultrasonic P-wave.
-13%. This value is close to the observed changes due to frame weakening. Therefore, based on our
preliminary data, if mineral dissolution is occuring in the field, time-lapse changes due to fluids can be
of the same order as does due to rock-fluid reactions.
We are currently equilibrating water with sections of the samples to resemble reservoir water conditions,
to avoid starting the reactions with distilled water. The remaining eight samples will be reacted and mea-
sured with the laser ultrasonic setup. We aim to report whether (and if so, how) the potential carbonate
dissolution affects the elastic rock frame and the petrophysical rock properties, from repeat NMR, CT
scans, XRD and thin section petrography. Our goal is also to investigate how clay minerals and rock
permeability affect the dissolution of the samples.
Conclusions
Preliminary experiments suggest that CO2 -water-rock interactions should be considered when interpret-
ing time-lapse seismic signatures. Especially in carbonate-cemented sandstones, we expect that the effect
of matrix weakening might be of the same magnitude as the fluid substitution of CO2 for water. We have
set the next set of samples for reactions to study rock-fluid reactivity for a range of carbonate volume
cement in sandstones.
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3rd International Workshop on Rock Physics, Perth, 13th -17th April 2015
[a] [b]
Figure 3: Laser ultrasonic scans for sample S5 before (a) and after (b) reactions with a CO2 -water
mixture.
Acknowledgements
We thanks Randall McDonnell and Brad Field for help selecting the field and core, Jami Johnson for
her help with the laser ultrasonic measurements, Cheng Yii Sim for fluid substitution modeling. Andres
Arcilla helped in sample preparation. Magritek performed the NMR measurements. The project is
funded by the University of Western Australia and the University of Auckland. Core samples were
provided by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals.
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