Characterization of a fracture zone using seismic attributes at the In Salah CO2 storage project

Abstract

The In Salah carbon dioxide storage project in Algeria has injected more than 3 million tons of carbon dioxide into a water-filled tight-sand formation. During injection, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) reveals a double-lobed pattern of up to a 20-mm surface uplift above the horizontal leg of an injection well. Interpretation of 3D seismic data reveals the presence of a subtle linear push-down feature located along the InSAR determined surface depression between the two lobes, which we interpreted to have to be caused by anomalously lower velocity from the fracture zone and the presence of [Formula: see text] displacing brine in this feature. To enhance the seismic interpretation, we calculated many poststack seismic attributes, including positive and negative curvatures as well as ant track, from the 3D seismic data. The maximum positive curvature attributes and ant track found the clearest linear features, with two parallel trends, which agreed well with the ant-track volume and the InSAR observations of the depression zone. The seismic attributes provided a plausible characterization of the fracture zone extent, including height, width, and length (80, 350, and 3500 m, respectively), providing important information for further study of fracture behavior due to the [Formula: see text] injection at In Salah. We interpreted the pattern of depression between two surface-deformation lobes as caused by the opening of a subvertical fracture or damage zone at depth above the injection interval, which allowed injected [Formula: see text] to migrate upward. Our analysis corroborated previous interpretation of surface uplift as due to the injection of [Formula: see text] in this well.