Modelling salt tectonics for carbon capture and storage

Subsurface storage of CO2 in the southern Permian Basin has great potential by virtue of proximity to sources (NE England industrial hubs), and large number of potential storage sites with large trap capacity in the Bunter Sandstone reservoir. The seals for the salt-cored anticlinal traps are an interbedded succession of evaporite units and claystones of mid-Late Triassic age. These are believed to have excellent seal properties at the core scale, but their integrity on the scale of the trap may be prejudiced by intensive faulting over the crestal regions of the anticlines as pointed out by Metcalfe et al. (2017) and Bentham et al. (2013). In particular, little is known about the fault properties for the range of faults that develop within the multilayered evaporite sequence. There are even outstanding questions about the fault timing, geometry, detachment (in Zechstein or Rot Halite?). When combined with the potential for improving numerical representation of faults in general, but specifically in a seal context, there is potential for a combined empirical and modelling study of the structural evolution and properties of the supra-reservoir and intra-reservoir faults for this CCS play.

The aims of this project are (1) to investigate the potential for seal bypass via faults during the storage of CO2 in subsurface reservoirs in general, with specific application to the Bunter play, (2) to evaluate options for improving modelling inputs of faults in Elfen.