Sensitivity of seismic response for monitoring CO 2 storage in a low porosity reservoir of the St Lawrence Lowlands, Québec, Canada: Part 1 – Laboratory measurements

Deployment of carbon capture and storage on a large scale poses many challenges. One is the availability of reservoirs with suitable characteristics (high porosity and permeability, matched large emitters, etc.). Such a challenge might lead to the selection of reservoirs with relatively low porosity. In those environments, the rock matrix is often stiff and questions arise regarding the capabilities of seismic methods to monitor CO 2 injection. In this paper, a series of ultrasonic measurements were performed under various pressure and temperature conditions to test the seismic response of two low‐porosity reservoir samples of the St Lawrence Lowlands sedimentary basin to different CO 2 phases. Results show that the P‐wave velocity and amplitude can be used to detect the phase transition. Illustrative modeling of seismic reflectivities within a hypothetical geological formation with physical properties equal to that of the St Lawrence Lowlands sedimentary basin, suggests that a CO 2 liquid‐water contact is a potentially good seismic reflector. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.