Kent Perry

Natural Gas Storage Industry Experience and Technology: Potential Application to CO2 Geological Storage

This chapter reviews the portfolio of technologies available within the underground gas storage industries and evaluates their applicability to geologic CO 2 storage. Gas storage operators have accumulated a significant knowledge base for the safe and effective storage of natural gas. While gas leakage has occurred due to well failures and geologic factors, overall gas storage has been effectively and efficiently performed. The chapter describes three types of gas movement—gas leakage, which is defined as unwanted gas movement through an intended cap rock; gas release that is defined as leaking gas having escaped to the atmosphere; and gas migration in which unwanted gas is moved within a reservoir but contained within the reservoir. Most gas leakage incidents in underground natural gas storage operations have occurred due to wellbore integrity problems. Poor cement jobs, casing corrosion, and improperly plugged wells in converted oil and gas fields have all contributed to gas leakage. Remedial action procedures and technologies to address these problems are well established in the oil and gas industry and have been proven to be effective.

Microhole Coiled Tubing Drilling: A Low Cost Reservoir Access Technology

Although The Microhole Coiled Tubing Drilling rigs have been used extensively in Canada, their application in the U.S. has been very limited. In an effort to introduce this technology to the U.S. operators; GTI, with the support of DOE/NETL has completed successful field testing of coiled tubing microhole drilling technology. In this paper we report results of field testing of the system in 25 wells drilled in the Niobrara unconventional gas play of Kansas and Colorado. The objective of the field test was to measure and document the rig performance under actual drilling conditions. In these tests, a coiled tubing drilling rig (designed and bulit by Tom Gipson with Advanced Drilling Technologies Inc. (ADT)) was utilized. The rig operations have continued to improve to the point where it now drills a 3,100-foot well in a single day. Well cost savings of approximately 30% over conventional rotary well drilling have been documented. A description of the rig and a summary of its performance in the Niobrara unconventional gas play are included. In addition, an estimate of economic advantages of widespread application of microhole drilling technology in the Lower 48 States is presented.