Our Speakers:

Dr. Jon Noad
Senior Palaeontologist,
Stantec Consulting

Abstract:

High-permeability (“high perm”) streaks and reservoir heterogeneity are well known to affect oil and gas production and enhanced oil recovery (EOR), but their role in carbon capture and storage (CCS) has received less attention.

Reservoir heterogeneity can come from:

• More permeable rock layers (e.g., sandstone or limestone)
• Changes from diagenesis (chemical/physical alterations after deposition)
• Structural features like fractures and cataclasis

Some processes reduce reservoir quality, especially:

• Diagenetic cementation (which blocks pore spaces and reduces permeability)

Understanding sedimentology (how rocks were deposited) is critical because:

• It controls the distribution of high-permeability streaks
• These streaks occur both horizontally and vertically
• They strongly influence CO₂ injection and storage behavior

Different depositional environments affect reservoir behavior, including:

• Fluvial (river)
• Aeolian (wind-blown)
• Lacustrine (lake)
• Coastal
• Shallow to deep marine
• Both clastic and carbonate systems

These environments can create:

• Predictable “thief zones” (areas where injected CO₂ flows too easily)
• Complex heterogeneities that impact CCS performance

Real-world CCS projects show that:

• Understanding these variations is key to effective carbon sequestration