Underground Formations Research Articles

Queer neorealism: Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione and the Cinema conspiracy against fascism

‘Cinema is the most powerful weapon’ – Benito Mussolini’s motto loomed in capital letters over the 1937 inauguration of the massive production hub being built in the outskirts of Rome, reminding the film industry what was expected of it. Notwithstanding the effort to deploy cinema as a key technology for governing the nation and the empire, in the early 1940s film became a battlefield for the Regime. This essay excavates from the closet of memory the story of the Cinema cell, the group of young film enthusiasts who, in fascist Italy, engaged in what today we would call ‘media activism’: they put their lives on the line, infiltrated the film industry, and shouldered the movie camera as their initial weapon of combat against a defiant regime. I focus on how the underground formation elaborated an iteration of filmic realism that countered the implantation in the body politic of racialized fantasies of national identity. In tracing the cell’s efforts to develop a gaze on the nation that would oppose the race-driven realism advocated by Mussolini’s son Vittorio, among others, I establish a genealogy for Visconti’s 1943 Ossessione and its display of queerness as the authentic alternative to fascist life. By way of conclusion, I disentangle the system of intimacy and affectivity harnessed by this film from the one that postwar neorealism contributed to securing.

Geomechanical study of gas reservoir rock using vertical seismic profile and petrophysical data (continental shelf in southern Iran)

ABSTRACTGeomechanics is a science dealing with the study of the behaviour of rocks affected by stress. It has various applications in utilisation from oil and gas reservoirs including of the wellbore stability analysis and determination of safe mud window. The main aim of this paper is geomechanical study of Kangan–Dalan reservoir in South Pars gas field in Persian Gulf in south Iran. Seismic waves are affected by physical properties of rocks when passing underground formations; thus, the velocity of these waves is a desired parameter for estimation of geomechanical properties. The velocity of compressional and shear waves has been determined with processing seismic data resulting from vertical seismic profile. In this paper, after calculation of elastic modules of reservoir rock, the imposed stress field was determined and these concepts were used for engineering calculations such as safe mud window, wellbore stability analysis and sand production potential. For well drilling in Kangan-Dalan reservoir, the minimum and maximum mud weights were proposed in average as 1.093 and 2.011 gr/cc and average critical mud weight as 2.48 gr/cc such that if the weight of mud increases, the tensile fractures will be created on the formation and complete loss of mud will happen.

Revisiting the Analytical Solutions of Heat Transport in Fractured Reservoirs Using a Generalized Multirate Memory Function

AbstractNumerous analytical solutions have been developed for modeling thermal perturbations to underground formations caused by deep‐well injection of fluids. Each solution has been derived for a specific boundary value problem and a simplified flow network with one set of parallel fractures. In this paper, new generalized solutions G*(x, s) are developed using (existing) global transfer functions and a new memory function g*(s), where x and s are the space and Laplace variable. The memory function represents the solutions of conductive heat exchange between fractures and matrix blocks and between fractured aquifers and unfractured aquitards. The memory function is developed to account for multirate exchange induced by different shapes, sizes, properties, and volumetric fractions of matrix blocks bounded by multiple sets of orthogonal fractures with different spacing. The global transfer functions represent the fundamental solutions to convective, convective‐conductive, and convective‐dispersive heat transport in fractures (or aquifers) without exchange and are available for various (1‐D linear, 1‐D radial, 2‐D dipole, and single‐well injection‐withdrawal) flow fields. The new solutions with exchange are developed using , thereby greatly simplifying solution development in a novel way, where ϑ and B*(s) are a fracture‐matrix scaling factor and the boundary condition function. The new solutions are applied to several example problems, showing that heat transport in fractured aquifers is significantly impacted by (1) thermal dispersion in fractures that is rarely considered, (2) multirate heat exchange with a wide range of size and anisotropy of rectangular matrix blocks, and (3) heat exchange between aquifers and aquitards.

Fixing carbon: To alleviate climate change, scientists are exploring ways to harness nature's ability to capture CO2 from the atmosphere.

EMBO Reports (2019) e47580 Global climate change is reality: It is affecting weather patterns and sea levels, and impacting on fauna, flora, and humanity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre‐industrial levels, anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by approximately 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero around 2050. Just saving energy will not be sufficient given the energy‐hungry technologies that keep human civilization running. “The decarbonization of society is a challenging task,” commented Arren Bar‐Even of the Max Planck Institute of Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany. “All of the world around us is composed of carbon commodities: plastic, the clothes we wear, everything.” To get to zero emission, humanity must go one step further than developing technologies that do with less energy and begin to capture carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. > … the most important biological mechanism for fixing carbon dioxide is very inefficient, which is very much down to one enzyme… There are various technologies to capture carbon dioxide and store it in underground geological formations or reduce it to one‐carbon compounds, such as methane. Yet, storing is only a temporary solution and methane is of limited use. Scientists are therefore trying to learn from biology. In fact, nature has invented carbon fixation with photosynthesis more than a billion years ago and has since expanded and refined it. Moreover, photosynthesis can convert carbon dioxide into complex molecules with long carbon backbones. “Organisms have an unbelievable biosynthetic potential that is unmatched by chemical processes. Biology is very good at selectively building complex carbon molecules, and they can do so from atmospheric carbon dioxide” said Tobias Erb of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany. Researchers now aim to harness biology's synthetic ability …

Impact assessment of interlayers on geological storage of carbon dioxide in Songliao Basin

Reservoirs in the Songliao Basin are characterized by strong heterogeneity, which increases the difficulty of exact reservoir prediction. The clay interlayer developed in the reservoir is an important factor affecting the heterogeneity of the reservoir. Using the reservoir numerical simulation technology, an attempt has been made to investigate the storage efficiency during CO2 sequestration in Songliao Basin considering different types of interlayer in underground formations. Results indicate that type I interlayer, with a large thickness embedded between the two sand bodies has function of shunting and blocking to alleviate the impacts on cap rock. The type II interlayer has a small thickness and locates inside a single sand body, with poor physical properties and continuity, which has the same blocking effect on CO2 distribution and moderating influence on the cap rock. The physical properties of type III interlayer are same as the type II interlayer, but it has uneven distribution and poor continuity. In addition, three schemes of perforated zone were designed and their effects on CO2 storage efficiency and stability were studied. For a single reservoir, the scheme I is to perforate a whole reservoir, which is more conducive to maintain the reservoir’s stability. For multiple sets of “single-reservoir”, the scheme II can be preferentially selected to perforate the reservoir section below the interlayer when the injection volume is small. However, the scheme III can be used to perforate the interlayer and the reservoir below that when the injection volume is large. The study is beneficial to provide guidance and advice for selecting a suitable CO2 geological storage and reduce the risk of CO2 leakage.

Hydrologic conditions for chemical composition of the Siberian river waters

The influence of hydrologic conditions on the Siberian river waters chemical composition, their spatial and temporal changes are analysed. The dependencies between the hydrochemical and hydrological parameters are determined. It is shown that: 1) many hydrochemical parameter changes are defined by lognormal probability distribution; 2) variability of the chemical composition and elevated concentrations of some substances will be more likely to occur in the inter-annual and intra-annual runoff variability; 3) the main features of the water chemical composition are formed at the stages of the slope, subsurface and underground runoff formation.

Experiment on carbon dioxide removal from flue gas

Reducing CO2 emissions for addressing climate change concerns is becoming increasingly important as the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has increased rapidly since the industrial revolution. Carbon capture and storage is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation. The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into atmosphere. This paper aims at manufacturing of a simple and useful unit of capture the carbon dioxide. The air with carbon dioxide is made to flow through the reaction chamber using an axial flow fan and NaOH is sprayed using a nozzle. The NaOH reacts with CO2 and form Na2CO3, and is collected in a tray. The maximum absorption rate of CO2 is found to be at NaOH solution molar concentration of 5.

CONFRONTATION OF THE UPA (UKRAINIAN INSURGENT ARMY) WITH THE SOVIET PARTISANS AND THE POLES IN KAMIN-KASHYRSKYI DISTRICT (1943–1944)

The article analyzes sources of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's struggle against the Soviet partisans and Polish units on the territory of Kamin-Kashyrskyi district of the Volyn region during the Nazi occupation. The archival sources traced the formation of the Soviet partisan movement and the Polish nationalist underground, as well as the causes and course of the confrontation. A special place in the article is given to the Ukrainian-Polish confrontation. The author analyzes the national composition of the Soviet partisan movement and the Polish population's participation in it. The main directions of the Ukrainian-Polish conflict are distinguished: the Poles' fight against the UPA as part of the German police and the Soviet partisan movement. The study identified relations between Ukrainians and Poles when the district's inhabitants were a part of the Polish state and at the beginning of World War II. The most large-scale military operations of the UPA soldiers with the Soviet partisans and the Polish units, the strategy, and tactics of their implementation have been outlined and systematized. An attempt has been made to classify military operations by chronological and problematic approach. The conclusions about the scale of military operations and their importance are made. The article focuses on the ideological confrontation between the UPA, the Soviet partisans, and the Polish underground formations, implementation of the ideological struggle methods. The article will be useful for a wide scientific community interested in the local history of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. Keywords: Ukrainian National Liberation Movement, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Polish units, the Soviet partisans, the Ukrainian-Polish confrontation, Kamin-Kashyrskyi area, German-Nazi occupation, military operation

Supercritical CO2 behaviour during water displacement in a sandstone core sample

CO2 injection into underground formations involves the flow of CO2 in subsurface rocks which already contain water. The flow of CO2 into the target formation is governed mainly by capillary forces, viscous forces and interfacial interactions. Any change in subsurface conditions of pressure and temperature during injection will have an impact on the capillary and viscous forces and the interfacial interactions, which, in turn, will have an influence the injection, displacement, migration, and storage capacity and security of CO2. In this study, an experimental investigation has been designed to explore the impact of fluid pressure (74–90 bar), temperature (33–55 °C), and injection rate (0.1–1 ml/min) on the dynamic pressure evolution and displacement efficiency when supercritical CO2 is injected into a water-saturated sandstone core sample. The study also highlights the impact of the capillary forces and viscous forces on the two-phase flow characteristics and shows the conditions where capillary forces or viscous forces become dominant. The authors are not aware of similar experimental studies conducted in the literature so far. The results revealed a moderate to considerable impact of the parameters investigated on the differential pressure profile, cumulative produced volumes, endpoint CO2 relative (effective) permeability and residual water saturation. The extent of the impact of each parameter (e.g. fluid pressure) was a function of the associated parameters (e.g. temperature and injection rate). Increasing fluid pressure caused the differential pressure profile of supercritical CO2-water displacement to transform to the likeness of liquid CO2-water displacement, while, increasing temperature transforms it to the likeness of gaseous CO2-water displacement. Increasing fluid pressure caused a considerable reduction in the maximum and quasi-differential pressures, an increase in the endpoint CO2 relative permeability (KrCO2) and a reduction in the residual water saturation (Swr) and cumulative produced volumes. Overall, the impact of temperature is opposite to that of fluid pressure. However, with increasing temperature, the KrCO2 showed a declining trend at high-fluid pressures (90 bar) but an increasing trend at low-fluid pressures (75 bar). Increasing injection rate caused a considerable increase in the maximum and quasi-differential pressures, a rise in the KrCO2, a reduction in the Swr, and an increase in the cumulative produced volumes. The Swr was in range of 0.34-0.41 while KrCO2 was less than 0.37, depending on the operational conditions. Changing the operational conditions caused a higher impact on KrCO2 than that on Swr. The results indicate that capillary forces dominate the multiphase flow characteristics as fluid pressure and temperature are increased.

Investigation of high temperature, high pressure, scaling and dissolution effects for Carbon Capture and Storage at a high CO2 content carbonate gas field offshore Malaysia

Malaysia is considering Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a possible way to reduce its greenhouse gas emission footprint. An offshore carbonate reservoir has been identified in which all aspects of CCS are investigated in detail. There, the CO2 is planned to be re-injected into a saline aquifer. However, formation damage in underground formations linked with permeability reduction can significantly impact oil and gas production and could render CCS infeasible. Thus, in order to manage the injection of CO2 from the subsurface side a study was conducted investigating geomechanical aspects, rock fluid interactions as well as production aspects from the gas field. Only very few studies exist that investigate scaling and dissolution effects at elevated pressures and temperatures. Here, results from 3 high pressure high temperature scaling and dissolution core floods for the scheduled to be developed carbonate field are presented in detail. Core floods were performed under temperatures ranging between 121 °C to 136 °C and CaCO3 scaling tendencies between 0.24 and 1.47. The scaling tendency of each brine was adjusted to represent, baseline, assumed worst case scaling as well as worst case dissolution scenarios identified based on fluid and gas samples and prior geochemical modelling. Bicarbonate, Calcium and pH were analysed from samples taken during the core flood. SEM-EDX analysis was done on core flood effluent particles. A calcite dissolution rate of 0.008 mol/m2/sec was calculated for the core flood with the scaling tendency of 0.24. The specific surface area of the calcite was estimated at 0.17 cm2/mol. Overall the results indicate that only minor dissolution can be anticipated during production from the CO2 rich gas field.

PLAY-BASED HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION UNDER SPATIAL UNCERTAINTY USING EVIDENTIAL THEORY

Abstract. Hydrocarbon exploration is a process based on the prediction of existing hydrocarbon in the underground formations which is associated with uncertainties. A number of studies have been undertaken on the extent of these uncertainties in the risk maps concerned with hydrocarbon exploration. This paper has addressed this issue using a novel approach. The differences of the proposed method are checked in a few cases. Firstly, the level of studying the hydrocarbon system is play which refers to an area with a potential for trapping hydrocarbon with a unique petroleum system. Second, the evidential theory was used to accurately examine the uncertainty in the maps of the hydrocarbon system. Finally, the model used to produce the final risk map is developed in a geospatial information system environment. The results of the research show that the functions proposed in the model are accurately estimated the uncertainty in the prediction of the existence of hydrocarbon systems in the study area. The CCRS map outlines approximately 25.9 % of the study area which is highly promising for the hydrocarbon potential reservation. According to the obtained results, around 61.2 % of the prospects have low risk of hydrocarbon potential in the area having high belief and about 43.7 % of the prospects are available with high risk of hydrocarbon potential in the regions with high uncertainty.

THE KARST IN ANO VLASSIA ACHAIA (GREECE) AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF OLONOS -PINDOS GEOTECTONIC UNIT ON ITS FORMATION

The study area includes the Selinous river hydrologie basin on East Erimanthos (Olonos) Mountain, to close to Ano Vlassia village (N. Péloponnèse - Greece). It is formed at an altitude between 700 - 2.169 m and occ 'Dies an area 30 Km2. It belongs to the Olonos - Pindos geotectonic unit, which characterized by lithostratigraphic unevenness, intense folds, successive thrusts with NE - SW directions and transverse faults. Lithostratigraphic and tectonic conditions are accountable for a directed karst development with many karstic basic planes. The above research includes systematic survey in all karstic formations that were observed. Karrens, kluft karrens, shallow dolines and dry karst valleys are developed on the surface. Furthermore, an underground formation was found and composed by caves, gulfs and an underground karstic river. Above 25 karstic fountainheads were observed which gush from the limestones with a 100 m3/h (summer) maximum supply. The imperfect development of surface karst, the good development of underground karst, karstic fountainheads, hydnlogical network and vert, allow for the studied area to be classified to the Transitional type of karst Dy Cvijic (1926) or to Halbkarst by Grund (1903).

Application of Structural Properties of Seismic Data to Prediction of Hydrocarbon Distribution

This article describes how under the influence of traps and trap ranges in size, final moisture content in oil production and changes in the reservoir is very large. Due to this, thin and dispersed oil concentration, facies changes and oil complexes, and strong segmentation, results in poor comparability between wells and conventional methods of seismic reservoir prediction has been more difficult to meet the development needs of the block. Therefore, the introduction of methods of seismic data structure characteristics, with a method based on sequence structure of underground rock formations, rock and petroleum allows the prediction for oil and gas purposes. Through the application of seismic structural properties, the result has been verified in practice and achieved a good application effect.

Metal release in shallow aquifers impacted by deep CO2 fluxes

The impact of CO2 leakage from underground storage formations on shallow water resources is a concerning aspect in CO2 capture and storage (CCS) risk assessment. In Campo de Calatrava region (Spain), natural CO2 fluxes from the Earth’s mantle interact with shallow aquifers, resulting in significant changes in their physical and chemical properties. The resultant water is slightly acidic (pH 5.9-6.4), oxidizing, and enriched in iron (up to 6.1×10-4 mol·L-1) and other metals usually found at trace concentrations. Thermodynamic calculations reveal that aqueous Fe(III) carbonate complexes play an important role in the persistence of this high concentration of iron and trace metals in solution.

Links between Energy Usage and Climate:Implications on Increasing CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions and Carbon Capture and Storage

Global climate change due to increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting from persistent use of fossil fuels over the past century is one of the major challenges of the contemporary industrial world. The exploitation of natural resources including fossil fuels has not always been done in a sustainable way. One of its adverse effects, faced by our generation, is climate change. We must not only be alert to these changes, but also make necessary efforts to adopt scientific measures to combat their ill effects. The combustion of fossil fuels together with added emissions from cement production, and land use change result in net annual increase in CO 2 in the atmosphere by 4 GtC. Scientists have clearly demonstrated the role of CO 2 emission in global warming. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an advanced technology to capture CO 2 from its source, isolate it from the atmosphere and store it typically in underground geological formations. We highlight the need to invest in obtaining cleaner energy from fossil fuels by implementing technologies like CCS along with technological advancements in renewables. We present here a review on the general debate around implementing CCS technology and dwell on some developments in India to understand if CCS will be effective in the future towards reducing the carbon footprint in our growing economy.

Effect of CO2 phase on its water displacements in a sandstone core sample

CO2 injection into underground formations can reduce CO2 emissions, enhance hydrocarbon and methane recovery, and extract geothermal heat. As the pressure and temperature vary in subsurface formations, the injected CO2 can be in gas, liquid and supercritical phase. The change in CO2 phase is likely to have a significant impact on capillary and viscous forces, which, in turn, will have a considerable influence on injectivity, displacement, migration, storage capacity and integrity of CO2 processes. This study was designed to investigate the effect of CO2 phase, at different injection rates, on the dynamic pressure evolution and the CO2 displacement performance during CO2 injection into a water-saturated sandstone core sample. The results indicate that CO2 phase significantly affects the differential pressure profile and water production profile. The differential pressure profiles measured from the displacement of supercritical CO2 and gas CO2 were significantly different from those measured from liquidCO2 displacements, particularly before CO2 breakthrough. Gas and supercriticalCO2 injection gave a water production rate much higher than the CO2 injection rate at early stages. Liquid CO2 injection yielded a water production rate similar to the CO2 injection rate. This may indicate that the injection of ScCO2or GCO2 (under a pressure higher than 60 bar) could give a high and quick oil production rate. The highest water recovery was obtained after the injection of 0.85, 1.08 and 2.32 pore volumes of scCO2, gCO2, and LCO2, respectively. The residual water saturations for the three CO2 phases were in the range of 30–33% while the endpoint relative permeability was in the range of 18–21%. The endpoint relative permeabilities for gas and liquid CO2 were very similar and higher than that of supercritical CO2 under our experimental conditions. The increase in injection rate caused a slight increase in the endpoint relative permeabilities for the three CO2 phases.

Compressed air energy storage: characteristics, basic principles, and geological considerations

With increasing global energy demand and increasing energy production from renewable resources, energy storage has been considered crucial in conducting energy management and ensuring the stability and reliability of the power network. By comparing different possible technologies for energy storage, Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is recognized as one of the most effective and economical technologies to conduct long-term, large-scale energy storage. In terms of choosing underground formations for constructing CAES reservoirs, salt rock formations are the most suitable for building caverns to conduct long-term and large-scale energy storage. The existing CAES plants and those under planning have demonstrated the importance of CAES technology development. In both Canada and China, CAES plants are needed to conduct renewable energy storage and electricity management in particular areas. Although further research still needs to be conducted, it is feasible and economical to develop salt caverns for CAES in Canada and China. Cited as : Li, L., Liang, W., Lian, H., Yang, J., Dusseault, M. Compressed air energy storage: characteristics, basic principles, and geological considerations. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2018, 2(2): 135-147, doi: 10.26804/ager.2018.02.03

Fast and accurate simulation of electromagnetic telemetry in deviated and horizontal drilling

Electromagnetic (EM) telemetry systems are widely used for measurement-while-drilling (MWD), especially in unconventional drilling. In this paper, a numerical method for the simulation of EM telemetry systems in deviated and horizontal drilling is introduced. The underground formation is assumed to be horizontally layered media, and the long, metal drill string acts as an antenna that may be treated as a thin wire excited by a gap voltage source located near the drill bit. The numerical model employs the electric field integral equation (EFIE) and the method of moments (MoM) to obtain a linear system for the axial current distribution on the drill string, which is subdivided into several one-dimensional segments. By using the thin wire kernel, near-field interactions can be evaluated accurately and efficiently, while also reducing problem dimensionality and singularity order of the homogeneous medium contribution to the layered medium Green's function (LMGF). The latter typically takes the form of a dyadic spectral domain integral, the asymptotics of whose integrands may be estimated and combined with Kummer's method to accelerate its evaluation, with the asymptotic correction terms evaluated in closed or easily evaluated forms. Numerical results are presented to verify the fast and accurate performance of the proposed approach. Results for signal voltage receivability by a surface antenna are also presented and discussed.

Effect of aqueous electrolyte concentration and valency on contact angle on flat glass surfaces and inside capillary glass tubes

Multiphase flow in underground formations is controlled to a large extent by capillary forces that depend on the interfacial tension, contact angle and pore diameter. The interfacial tension and contact angle depend mainly on the type of brine and its concentration. In this study, the static contact angles on flat glass surfaces have been explored as a function of brine concentrations, while the static contact angles inside glass micro-tubes have been studied as a function of pore diameter and brine concentrations for monovalent (NaCl, KCl) and divalent (MgCl2, CaCl2) brine solutions. The concentrations ranged from 0.001 to 6 M under ambient conditions, depending on the investigated salt, while the inner diameters of the glass micro-tubes ranged from 100 to 1000 μm. A linear correlation (h = 0.3249 × d – 4.6203) between the glass micro-tube inner diameter and the meniscus height was obtained for the above solutions for concentration of less than or equal to 1 m. This correlation can be used with the Cheong equation to calculate the contact angle of the investigated solutions when only the micro-tube pore diameter is known. The results also showed that salt concentration and valency have more influence on contact angles on flat glass substrates than inside micro-sized glass tubes. In general, the contact angles on a flat glass surface increased with increasing concentration. On the other hand, the contact angles inside glass micro-tubes showed no variation with increasing concentration but increased slightly as the capillary inner diameters decreased. The difference might be associated with the curvature of the three-phase contact line. The contact angles on flat glass surfaces (≈63–90°) were much higher than those inside the glass capillaries (≈24–33°).

CO2 and CH4 Wettabilities of Organic-Rich Shale

CO2 and CH4 wettabilities of organic-rich shale are important physicochemical parameters that significantly influence CO2 sequestration and CH4 production. However, there is a serious lack of understanding of these aspects because the data available are scarce. Thus, we evaluated organic-rich shale CO2 and CH4 wettabilities (i.e., brine/shale/gas systems) through advancing and receding brine contact angle measurements as a function of pressure, temperature, salinity, and ion type (as these can vary significantly in underground formations). The results indicated that the brine contact angles for both CO2/CH4–brine–shale systems increased with pressure and salinity, but decreased with temperature. However, these effects were much less significant for CH4. Furthermore, the brine contact angles for the CO2–brine–shale system reached 180° (i.e., the shale was completely wetted by CO2) when the pressure reached 30 MPa at 343 K and ∼9 MPa at 298 K. The brine contact angles for the analogue CH4 systems was much l...