CO2 Geological Storage Observations and Learnings from 11 Years of Dynamic Injection at the Aquistore CO2 Storage Site in Canada
This is a joint meeting of Canadian Society of Senior Engineers and IEEE Life Members Affinity Groups.
This series of presentations has been occurring for more than 20 years and is now being also advertised to the IEEE Northern Canada Section (NCS) Life Members Affinity Group (LMAG) through vTools and other IEEE LMAG's and IEEE members depending upon the topic. At the same time the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers (CSSE) is using their national organization to provide information, the subject and speaker to members across Canada.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, October 15, 2026. The meeting will open at 12:30 pm MDT (2:30pm Eastern), with the presentation starting at 12:45 (2:45 pm EDT).
Please note the meeting originates in Alberta which is in the Mountain Time Zone, so if you are in another province you must account any necessary time shift.
Title: CO2 Geological Storage Observations and Learnings from 11 Years of Dynamic Injection at the Aquistore CO2 Storage Site in Canada
Presenter: Rick Chalaturnyk University of Alberta and GeoVer Inc.
Summary:
The Aquistore CO2 Storage Project is an integral component of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam CO2 Capture Project located in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada. Operational synergies between the capture facility (supply) and CO2-EOR (demand) also require excess CO2 to be transported via pipeline to the Aquistore injection well. The Aquistore site includes one injection well and one observation well approximately 150m offset from the injection well. Both wells are completed with various measurement and monitoring equipment, including distributed temperature sensing (DTS), distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) and tubing/casing-conveyed pressure gauges at different levels to measure pressure and temperature changes downhole during to CO2 injection.
The storage reservoir is 200m thick at the injection site and extends from 3130m to 3350m depth at the injection well. The reservoir comprises the Deadwood and Winnipeg formations. The Deadwood Formation is sandstone with silty-to-shaley interbeds. It is overlain by the Winnipeg Formation, which includes the Icebox (shale) and Black Island (sandstone). The Icebox constitutes a shale caprock and is the primary seal to the reservoir. A secondary storage seal is provided by the Prairie Evaporite Formation which is a ∼150 m thick evaporitic unit that resides ∼500m above the reservoir. The Winnipeg/Deadwood formations at the Aquistore site have porosities ranging from 0.04-0.17 and permeabilities of 0.1-20 mD. The reservoir temperature is approximately 115 °C, initial average reservoir pressure is 35 MPa and the pore fluid is a hypersaline brine with a TDS of approximately 330 g/L.
This presentation will share learnings gained from studying and monitoring the dynamic responses that have been recorded since the drilling and completion of the CO2 injection and observation well in 2012 and the start of CO2 injection on April 16, 2015. Figure 1 shows the early dynamic responses at these wells during the early startup phases.
The presentation will discuss issues ranging from well integrity to reservoir simulation to seismic monitoring (Figure 2) based on this valuable historical data. In particular, the Aquistore project has provided an extremely valuable opportunity to collect real-time monitoring data of CO2 phase changes in the injection stream under fully integrated operational conditions and this provides unparalleled information for understanding geological storage under these conditions and optimizing completion systems. The presentation will also discuss interesting learnings around salt precipitation within the wellbore.
Biography:
Rick Chalaturnyk is a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta, holds an Energi Simulation Research Chair in Subsurface Energy Geomechanics and is. Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Prior to joining the University in 1997, Rick helped co-found a reservoir surveillance company called PROMORE Engineering and after joining the University, was engaged as Executive VP of Opsens Solutions, a company providing fiber-optic and nonfiber monitoring solutions to the SAGD and CO2 Storage world. At the University of Alberta, Rick has established the Reservoir Geomechanics Research Group, working primarily in the area of unconventional resource geomechanics and geological storage of CO2 and has established four unique GeoInnovation Environments that underpin the NSERC/Energi Simulation Industrial Research Consortia on Reservoir Geomechanics that includes projects focusing on how geomechanical mechanisms influence or impact reservoir flow processes, with a particular focus on in situ stress measurement, lab property measurements, modeling strategies and verification studies. He was involved in the IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Storage and Monitoring Research Project and is currently active as a member of the scientific and engineering research committee for the Aquistore project in Saskatchewan and several other international CCS initiatives. Dr. Chalaturnyk served as Chair of a Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee that developed CSA Z741-12, a standard for the geological storage of CO2. In addition to research at the University of Alberta, Dr. Chalaturnyk has also founded GeoVer Inc., a reservoir geomechanics consulting company focussing on complex reservoir-geomechanical simulations and the development and deployment of advanced reservoir geomechanics surveillance technologies.
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