Kansas Geological Society

Dec. 9, 2015

Update on Induced Seismicity Studies by the Kansas Geological Survey, by Yevhen "Eugene" Holubnyak, W. Lynn Watney, Tandis Bidgoli, John Doveton, Mina Fazelalavi, Jennifer (Raney) Hollenbach, K. David Newell, and Tiraz Birdie
(Acrobat PDF, 22 MB)

KDHE Geology & Well Technology Section Seminar

Sept. 3, 2015

59th Midwest Groundwater Conference

Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2014

The Impacts of Carbon Dioxide Storage in the Saline Arbuckle Aquifer on Water Quality in Freshwater Aquifers in Kansas, by Tiraz Birdie, Lynn Watney, Paul Gerlach, Michael Killion, Jennifer Raney, Eugene Holubnyak, Tandis Bidgoli, Gene Williams, Minh Nguyen, and Brownie Wilson
(Acrobat PDF, 3 MB)

NGWA Water Summit, Denver

May 6-8, 2014

Integrating Modern Suite of Geophysical Logs, Geochemistry, and Seismic Data for Characterizing Deep Aquifers, by W. Lynn Watney, Tiraz Birdie, John Doveton, Jason Rush, Fatemeh (Mina) FazelAlavi, Yevhen (Eugene) Holubnyak, Aimee Scheffer, Dennis Hedke, Saugata Datta, and Jennifer Roberts
(Acrobat PDF, 7 MB, revised April 2015)

Geologic Carbon Storage in the Lower Ordovician Arbuckle Group Saline Aquifer in Kansas, by W. Lynn Watney, Tiraz Birdie, Yevhen (Eugene) Holubnyak, Jason Rush, Fatemeh (Mina) FazelAlavi, John Doveton, Thomas Hansen, Connie Walker, Ken Cooper, Dana Wreath, Jennifer Raney
(Acrobat PDF, 7 MB)

NETL Carbon Storage R&D Project Review Meeting

Aug. 12-14, 2014

Kansas NextStep

Aug. 7, 2014

Carbon Storage and Utilization in Kansas--Are We Ready?, by W. Lynn Watney, Jason Rush, and Jennifer Raney
(Acrobat PDF, 19 MB)

  1. Framing the opportunity for CO2 utilization in the oil patch
  2. Highlight current and potential CO2 supplies
  3. Opportunities, risks and uncertainties for CO2-EOR
  4. Brief summary of selected case studies that highlight approaches to next-generation CO2-EOR applicable to Kansas oil reservoirs

AGU Fall Meeting

Held in San Francisco, CA, Dec. 9-13

Geochemical and Mineralogical Investigation for Carbon Capture and Storage, Within the Arbuckle Aquifer, Kansas, by B. Campbell, M. Vega, R. Barker, E. Holubnyak, W. Watney, and S. Datta
(Acrobat PDF, 40 MB)
A class VI permit site under U.S. Department of Energy has been proposed for carbon sequestration in south-central Kansas. In an effort to maintain environmental stability three wells have been drilled to basement rock, two being near the injection site, KGS 1-32 and KGS 1-28, and one being to the western annex, Cutter KGS #1. The western annex site, Cutter, is being utilized as a cross-comparison for mineralogical, geochemical, and structural component to the eastern sites in Wellington. A link will be determined of the continuity of three zones of interest: the Mississippian pay zone (3670'-3700'), a potential baffle zone in the upper Arbuckle (4400'-4550'), and the proposed CO2 injection zone (4900'-5050'). 11 depths within Cutter have been swabbed, and samples taken to investigate the chemistry of the subsurface formation water. The different depths will allow for a quantitative determination of how the brine composition varies with depth, and also provides a baseline for future monitoring. Initial chemical analysis by ICP-OES and HR-ICP-MS show a hyper saline brine (50,000-190,000TDS), dominated by Cl, Na, and Ca ions. pH ranges from 6.4 to 7.5, and total alkalinity from 124 and 378 mg/L of HCO3-. One complex, yet intriguing, species is Iron. It could potentially allow for further precipitation of the CO2 from the formation of Fe carbonates, such as siderite. Cores and thin sections were taken from a variety of depths ranging from 3681.9' to 5176.9' (Wellington) and 5564.3' to 7540.2' (Cutter). Dominant mineralogy consists of dolomite with varying forms of silicic intrusions, usually in the form of chert nodules with sulfide minerals and argillaceous materials in between. Extensive vugs and microfractures allow for varying porosity within each interval. Pay zone rocks typically display fine-grained cherty dolomite with subhedral to euhedral dolomite rhombs as well as oil stains oriented in parallel blotches. Characteristics such as high porosity and small grain size could potentially lead to quicker reactions with CO2 saturated brine, releasing oil trapped in pore spaces and leading to enhanced oil recovery. The rocks of the baffle zone are characterized by a low porosity dolomitic packstone with increasing abundance of chert, argillaceous materials, and sulfide minerals towards the bottom of the zone. Baffle zone relative impermeability could also allow for improved CO2 reactivity as it would have more time to react with formation minerals. The injection zone is generally composed of dolomite with siliceous nodules that slightly increases with depth. Explicit heterogeneity exists at carbonate-chert boundaries usually occurring in fractures and heavily influencing CO2 to mobilize in a convoluted, potentially lateral fashion. Flow through experiments have been conducted in order to determine reactivity and stability of the overlying cap rocks and baffle zone. Reservoir characterization is determined through geochemical modeling, and will need to be extensively studied in order to properly determine the feasibility for carbon sequestration in Kansas. With the potential for 2.7 billion tones of CO2 to be stored in Kansas, this project could allow Kansas to play a major role in the quest for environmental stability.

DOE Carbon Storage R&D Project Review Meeting

Held in Pittsburgh, PA, Aug. 20 and 21

Kansas NextStep Oil and Gas Conference, Hays

August 2013

Sedimentologic and Stratigraphic Effects of Episodic Structural Activity During the Phanerozoic in the Hugoton Embayment, Kansas USA, by W. Lynn Watney, John Youle, Dennis Hedke, Paul Gerlach, Raymond Sorenson, Martin Dubois, Larry Nicholson, Thomas Hansen, David Koger, Ralph Baker, Jennifer Raney
(Acrobat PDF, 21 MB)

AAPG Annual Meeting

May 2013

Evaluating Carbon Storage in Morrowan and Mississippian oil fields and Underlying Lower Ordovician Arbuckle Saline Aquifer in Southern Kansas, by Willard L. Watney, Jason Rush, Martin K. Dubois, Robinson L. Barker, Tiraz Birdie, Ken Cooper, Saugata Datta, John Doveton, Mina Fazelalavi, David Fowle, Paul Gerlach, Thomas Hansen, Dennis E. Hedke, Yevhen Holubnyak, Breanna Huff, K. David Newell, Larry Nicholson, Jennifer Roberts, Aimee Scheffer, Ayrat Sirazhiev, Raymond P. Sorenson, Georgios Tsoflias, Eugene Williams, Dana Wreath, John Youle
(3-Panel Poster, Acrobat PDF, 29 MB)
Kansas currently has no large scale source of CO2 available to support an active CCUS industry, yet oil fields in Kansas offer substantial reserves potentially recoverable by CO2-EOR (~ 2 billion bbls). Oil fields in southern Kansas also overlie a deep (>1200 m), thick (150 to 300 m) Arbuckle saline aquifer that could greatly increase CO2 storage capacity in these fields. Operation of overlying fields could also serve to monitor, verify, and account (MVA) for CO2 that is injected and aid in achieving cost-effective management of commercial scale CO2 storage (10's millions of metric tons) in the saline aquifer while reducing uncertainty.
A multi-disciplinary investigation funded by DOE and cost share from industry partners is evaluating the CO2 storage capacity in five oil fields and establishing regional storage capacity of the deep saline Arbuckle aquifer. Regional 3D seismic, digital well logs, potential fields, and remote sensing data are being used to build geomodels and conduct simulations at additional sites potentially best suited for commercial scale CO2 storage. Together field and site studies will serve to calibrate the regional model.
CO2 will be injected on a small scale in a Mississippian reservoir and the underlying Arbuckle saline aquifer in one of these fields, Wellington Field, Sumner County, Kansas. Drilling, coring, and seismic acquisition in Wellington and more recently at Cutter Field in Stevens County, Kansas has added new information about the complex hydrostratigraphic units that comprise the Arbuckle and characteristics of the overlying caprock. Geomodeling and reservoir simulations of Morrow and Chester sandstone reservoirs in southwestern Kansas, and the Osage-Meramec dolomitic chert reservoir at Wellington Field are focused on evaluating the efficacy of CO2-EOR. This extended knowledge is being applied to gain a Class VI permit to inject CO2 into the Arbuckle at Wellington Field. The information obtained and methodologies applied in the CO2-EOR projects will assist industry in implementing optimal carbon management. Combining the oil field and underlying saline aquifer will help to minimize uncertainty and risk aided by the knowledge gained from field development and the fact that the accumulation of oil attest to the integrity of overlying sealing strata.

Sedimentologic and Stratigraphic Effects of Episodic Structural Activity During the Phanerozoic in the Hugoton Embayment, Kansas USA, by Willard L. Watney, John Youle, Dennis E. Hedke, Paul Gerlach, Raymond P. Sorenson, Martin K. Dubois, Larry Nicholson, Thomas Hansen, David Koger, Ralph Baker
(PowerPoint Slides, Acrobat PDF, 12 MB)
The 10,000 km2 Hugoton Embayment (HE) is a relatively shallow, <3 km deep, northerly extension of the Anadarko Basin, where sediment thickness is up to 12 km. The Anadarko Basin is bordered on its south by the NW-trending Amarillo-Wichita frontal fault zone with up to 10 km of total structural relief. The HE is defined by a set of regional fault zones including high angle reverse with offsets in excess of 200 m confirmed by regional 3D seismic. The timing of these northern faults, located some 120 km north of the main frontal fault system, coincides with major tectonic activity (late Mississippian through middle Pennsylvanian). Abrupt shifts in the fault systems between NW-trending and N-NE trends are sites of large (5+ by 3 km long), parallelogram-shaped horst blocks on NE sides and adjoining grabens on SW side bounded by reverse faulting down to the west and south suggesting a system of synthetic NW-trending right lateral and antithetic N-NE trending left lateral strike-slip faults.
Faulting is closely associated with a 100 km long southward draining Chester-age incised valley. While main faulting post-dates the valley incision, possible deep karst and faulting have created linear valley segments proximal to horst blocks while valleys meander in segments between. Later faulting linked to karst formed an updip trap for the Chester reservoir in Shuck Field. A NW-trending flexure north of Shuck Field separates a narrow valley system to the north from a broad, tidal dominated, siliciclastic complex to the south.
Subdued structural movement, particularly along older structural features, continued during the upper Pennsylvanian and into the upper Permian expressed as persistent flexural folding. A series of N-S trending horst blocks and satellite anticlines became the locus for stacked ooid/grainstone shoals.
Laramide and post-Laramide deformation led to additional flexure above deep structures leading to widespread dissolution of shallow (<450 m) halite beds in the Lower Permian strata. Dissolution fronts are closely related to the underlying structure and are expressed in surface geomorphology. This evaporite karst contributed to accommodation space for the Pliocene High Plains Aquifer.
The structural geometries in the HE suggest strike-slip faulting that extended from the Anadarko Basin during peak tectonism. Regional faults and flexure closely corresponds to a template of Precambrian basement structures that are revealed by multiple data types.

Kansas Geological Society

April 16, 2013

Chester Incised Valley System, Haskell and Seward Counties, Kansas by Martin K. Dubois, John C. Youle, Peter R. Senior, Dennis E. Hedke, Eugene Williams, and Raymond P. Sorenson. (Acrobat PDF, 13 MB)

Tulsa Geological Society

Jan. 8, 2013

Evaluating CO2 Utilization and Storage in Kansas by W. Lynn Watney and Jason Rush. (Acrobat PDF, 13 MB)

Kansas Geological Society

Dec. 18, 2012

Production Geology of the North Midcontinent

Dec. 4-5, 2012

Carbon Storage R&D Project Review Meeting

Aug. 21-23, 2012

Kansas Environmental Conference

Aug. 7, 2012

Carbon Sequestration in Kansas --Update on DOE funded projects by W. Lynn Watney and Jason Rush. (Acrobat PDF, 6 MB)

Kansas NextStep Oil and Gas Conference, Hays

Aug. 1, 2012

Mississippian Carbonates in Kansas: Integrating Log, Core, Seismic by W. Lynn Watney and others. (Acrobat PDF, 16 MB)

22nd Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference, Montréal

June 2012

Laboratory CO2 flow experiments to model hydrochemical and mineralogical changes in the Arbuckle aquifer during CO2 storage by R. Barker, L. Watney, B. Strazisar, A> Scheffer, L. Kelly, S. Ford, and S. Datta. (Acrobat PDF, 1.2 MB)

Geophysical Soc. of Oklahoma City

June 8, 2012

Reservoir Characterization and Modeling of a Chester Incised Valley Fill Reservoir, Pleasant Prairie South Field, Haskell County, Kansas by Martin K. Dubois, Peter R. Senior, Eugene Williams, Dennis E. Hedke. (Acrobat PDF, 9 MB)

Kansas Geological Society

March 6, 2012

Evaluating CO2-EOR and CO2 Storage Capacity in Kansas by W. Lynn Watney and Jason Rush. (Acrobat PDF, 22 MB)

AAPG GeoScience Technology Workshop

Feb. 27-29, 2012

Talk given at AAPG workshop on "New Directions in Carbonates," Fort Worth

Geologic assessment of the Mississippian System in southern Kansas incorporating log and core petrophysics and seismic data from Wellington Field, Sumner County, Kansas--implications for horizontal drilling by W. Lynn Watney, Jason Rush, and collaborators. (Acrobat PDF, 22 MB)

AGU Fall Meeting

Jan. 21, 2012

Talk Given at AGU Fall Meeting, Dec. 2011, San Francisco

Modeling CO2 Sequestration in Saline Aquifer and Depleted Oil Reservoirs to Evaluate Regional CO2 Sequestration Potential of Ozark Plateau Aquifer System, South-Central Kansas by W. Lynn Watney, Jason Rush, and collaborators. (Acrobat PDF, 11 MB)

Annual Review Meeting

Nov. 15-17, 2011

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carbon Storage Program Infrastructure Annual Review Meeting (featuring DOE's Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships), Pittsburgh, PA, November 15-17, 2011

Modeling CO2 Sequestration in Saline Aquifer and Depleted Oil Reservoir to Evaluate Regional CO2 Sequestration Potential of Ozark Plateau Aquifer System, South-Central Kansas by W. Lynn Watney and Jason Rush, Joint PIs, and team members. (Acrobat PDF, 12 MB)

Small Scale Field Test Demonstrating CO2 sequestration in Arbuckle Saline Aquifer and by CO2-EOR at Wellington field, Sumner County, Kansas by W. Lynn Watney and Jason Rush. (Acrobat PDF, 6 MB)

AAPG Mid-Continent Section Meeting

October 1-4, 2011

KDHE Geology Section Fall 2011 Seminar

September 2011

Kansas Next Step Conference

August 2011

AAPG Annual Meeting

July 2011

Evaluation of CO2 Sequestration Potential in Ozark Plateau Aquifer System (OPAS) in Southern Kansas--Initial Studies by Willard L. Watney, Saibal Bhattacharya, Paul Gerlach, Jason Rush, Tom Hansen, Larry Nicholson, John Doveton, Anna Smith, Dennis Hedke, Susan Nissen, Abdelmoneam Raef, Jianghai Xia, David Koger, Ralph Baker, and John Victorine (Acrobat PDF, 9 MB). Adapted from oral presentation at AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, USA, April 10-13, 2011.

Geological Survey Advisory Council

Dec. 2010

Evaluate CO2 Sequestration Potential of Arbuckle Group Saline Aquifer and CO2-EOR in select Mississippian and Chester-Morrow fields in southern Kansas by W. Lynn Watney and Saibal Bhattacharya. (Acrobat PDF, 8 MB), presented at the Survey's Advisory Council Meeting, Dec. 2, 2010

GSA Annual Meeting

Nov. 2010

Lower-Middle Ordovician Paleokarst Architecture: A New Outcrop Analog from the Nopah Range, California, USA by Jason Rush and Tony J. Troutman (Acrobat PDF, 37 MB), presented at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America held in Denver, Oct. 31-Nov. 3

3D Seismic Survey

Nov. 2010

Wellington and Anson-Bates fields by Dennis Hedke (Acrobat PDF, 12 MB), presented at Kansas Geophysics in the 21st Century Symposium held in Wichita, Oct. 27-29

DOE Annual Review Meeting

Oct. 2010

Presented Oct. 6 in Pittsburgh (Acrobat PDF, 7 MB), Annual Review Meeting, Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships

KDHE Geology Section, 2010 Fall Seminar

Sept. 2010

Presented Sept. 9 in Wichita (PowerPoint file, 7 MB)

Kansas Next Step Conference

Aug. 2010

Presented Aug. 5 in Hays (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 8.3 MB)

American Oil & Gas Reporter

June 2010

June 2010 Article (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 128 kB)

EPA Region 7 UIC Meeting

May 2010

EPA-UIC_May_2010.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 10 MB)

Kansas Water Authority

May 2010

KS_Water_Auth_May_14_2010.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 6 MB)

Southwest Kansas Royalty Owners Association

April 2010

SWKROA_Apr_24_2010.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 8.8 MB)

Field Trip to Observe 3-D Seismic Acquisition

March 2010

Wellington_Field_Trip.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 5.6 MB)

DOE National Energy Techology Lab

Feb 2010

DOE_Pittsburg_Feb_3_to_4.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 5.6 MB)

Kansas House Energy and Utilities Committee

January 2010

KS_House_Jan_14_2010.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, 4.2 MB)

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South-central Kansas CO2 Project is a DOE-funded project of the Kansas Geological Survey. More ...

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