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Meeting Location this month:
Ikon Science
12140 Wickchester Lane, Suite 400
Houston TX 77079

Speaker: Colin Sayers, University of Houston
Co-Author: Sagnik Dasgupta, SLB

Poorly consolidated sandstones are attractive targets for underground storage of carbon due to their high porosity and permeability. Monitoring of injection and movement of CO2 in such formations using elastic waves requires an understanding of the acoustic properties of these sandstones. Current approaches are mostly effective medium theories based on Hertz-Mindlin contact theory in which the grains are assumed to be spherical. Because the assumption of spherical grains is a poor representation of the microstructure of sandstones, and because of the possible geometrical complexity of grain contacts, the possible presence of clay and other minerals at the contacts, we present a new approach to treat the elastic properties of poorly consolidated sandstones. This allows the properties of the grain contacts and any pore filling material to be estimated by inversion of density, compressional and shear sonic logs. Using measured well logs in two poorly consolidated sandstones of interest for CO2 storage we find that the shear compliance of the grain contacts is greater than the normal compliance, and this may indicate the possibility of sliding at grain contacts with low shear compliance, particularly if CO2 acts to weaken any cement that may be present at the grain contacts. The formations considered are the Paluxy Formation in Kemper County, Mississippi, and the Frio Formation near Houston, Texas. Inversion for the mechanical properties of infill material lying within the pore space suggests that the bulk and shear moduli of infill material in the Paluxy case are significantly higher than the Frio case, consistent with the lower grain contact compliance in the Paluxy case. The mechanical properties of pore-filling material and grain contact normal and shear compliance obtained by inversion may allow possible candidates for CO2 storage to be ranked based on the potential for grain transport during CO2 injection and flow of formation fluids.

Speaker Biography: Colin Sayers, University of Houston
Colin Sayers received a B.A. in physics from the University of Lancaster, UK, and a D.I.C. and Ph.D. in physics from Imperial College, London, UK. He has previously worked for Shell in the Netherlands and the UK and for Schlumberger in the UK and USA. He currently holds a position as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston. He is a member of AGU, EAGE, GSH, SEG, and SPE, a member of the Research Committee of SEG, and has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Science, Geophysical Prospecting, and The Leading Edge. In 2010 he presented the SEG/EAGE Distinguished Instructor Short Course “Geophysics under stress: Geomechanical applications of seismic and borehole acoustic waves.” In 2013 he was awarded honorary membership of the Geophysical Society of Houston “in recognition and appreciation of distinguished contributions to the geophysical profession.” He shared an award for best paper in The Leading Edge in 2013.
Colin is an Honorary Member of the GSH.

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