Major CO2 blowouts from offshore wells are strongly attenuated in water deeper than 50 m

Growing interest in offshore geologic carbon sequestration (GCS) motivates evaluation of the consequences of subsea CO2 well blowouts. We have simulated a hypothetical major CO2 well blowout in shallow water of the Texas Gulf Coast. We use a coupled reservoir‐well model (T2Well) to simulate the subs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Greenhouse gases: science and technology 2020-02, Vol.10 (1), p.15-31
Main Authors: Oldenburg, Curtis M., Pan, Lehua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attenuation
Blowouts
buoyant plume
Carbon dioxide
Carbon sequestration
CO2 in water column
CO2 well blowout
Computer simulation
Flow rates
Flow velocity
integral plume model
offshore well blowout
Organic chemistry
Orifices
Seawater
Shallow water
Water circulation
Water column
Water wells
wellbore modeling
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Summary:Growing interest in offshore geologic carbon sequestration (GCS) motivates evaluation of the consequences of subsea CO2 well blowouts. We have simulated a hypothetical major CO2 well blowout in shallow water of the Texas Gulf Coast. We use a coupled reservoir‐well model (T2Well) to simulate the subsea blowout flow rate for input to an integral model (TAMOC) for modeling CO2 transport in the water column. Bubble sizes are estimated for the blowout scenario for input to TAMOC. Results suggest that a major CO2 blowout in ≥50 m of water will be almost entirely attenuated by the water column due to CO2 dissolution into seawater during upward rise. In contrast, the same blowout in 10 m of water will hardly be attenuated at all. Results also show that the size of the orifice of the leak strongly controls the CO2 blowout rate. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:2152-3878
2152-3878
DOI:10.1002/ghg.1943