Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership

GIS – Geologic

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL), under Randy Lee, serves as the lead for geologic carbon sequestration evaluations and provision of geologic data for the Big Sky Carbon Warehouse. The Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) at the University of Wyoming, under Jeff Hamerlink, is providing assistance with completion of geologic data layers, in particular for Wyoming.

Geologic sequestration potential is being assessed for sedimentary and volcanic basins including deep saline acquifers, depleted oil/gas reservoirs, deep unminable coal beds, and mafic-rock hosted fresh acquifers. The INL is also evaluating the sequestration potential of the large traditional hydrocarbon basins located in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota (Figure 1). Additionally, they have developed a procedure to evaluate the non-traditional volcanic basin plays found in southern Idaho.

During Phase I, the INL Geologic Sequestration Team has developed an appropriate GIS database schema, identified data sources, and populated the database with this data. Currently, geologic data are being evaluated to determine the sequestration potential for specific geologic sites within the Big Sky region.

Image: Big Sky region oil and gas provinces

Figure 1. Big Sky region oil and gas provinces. (larger view in pdf format)

The overall approach for assessing geologic carbon sequestration potential incorporates geospatial and tabular data within a GIS. Initial GIS-based modeling of the oil and gas regions of Montana and Wyoming was conducted to characterize the suitability of each candidate site with respect to its carbon dioxide sequestration potential. The structure of the spatial database was developed to expedite the flow of critical information into these geochemical and reservoir modeling activities (Figure 2). The modeling approach includes isolating individual oil and gas wells – first by play area, then by formation within each play. Calculations were then performed using tabular well data, resulting in data surfaces and stand-alone tables for pressure, temperature, density, and thickness. Using this resulting information, sequestration volumes have been projected for 283 formations in 57 plays using data from approximately 50,000 wells in Montana and 117,304 active wells in Wyoming. A schema of the model is shown in Figure 3.

Image: Big Sky GIS database structure for plays, wells, and geologic formations

Figure 2. Big Sky GIS database structure for plays, wells, and geologic formations.
(larger view in pdf format)

Image: Big Sky carbon sequestration volume model

Figure 3. Big Sky carbon sequestration volume model. (larger view in pdf format)

Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership
PO Box 172460
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717-2460
406-994-3755
bigskycarbon@montana.edu