Geophysical techniques play key roles in the measuring, monitoring, and verifying the safety of CO2 sequestration and in identifying the efficiency of CO2-enhanced oil recovery. Although geophysical monitoring techniques for CO2 sequestration have grown out of conventional oil and gas geophysical exploration techniques, it takes a long time to conduct geophysical monitoring, and there are many barriers and challenges. In this paper, with the initial objective of performing CO2 sequestration, we studied the geophysical tasks associated with evaluating geological storage sites and monitoring CO2 sequestration. Based on our review of the scope of geophysical monitoring techniques and our experience in domestic and international carbon capture and sequestration projects, we analyzed the inherent difficulties and our experiences in geophysical monitoring techniques, especially, with respect to 4D seismic acquisition, processing, and interpretation.
Shear-wave velocity is a key parameter for calibrating monitoring time-lapse 4D seismic data during CO2-EOR （Enhanced Oil Recovery） and CO2 sequestration. However, actual S-wave velocity data are lacking, especially in 4D data for CO2 sequestration because wells are closed after the CO2 injection and seismic monitoring is continued but no well log data are acquired. When CO2 is injected into a reservoir, the pressure and saturation of the reservoirs change as well as the elastic parameters of the reservoir rocks. We propose a method to predict the S-wave velocity in reservoirs at different pressures and porosities based on the Hertz-Mindlin and Gassmann equations. Because the coordination number is unknown in the Hertz Mindlin equation, we propose a new method to predict it. Thus, we use data at different CO2 injection stages in the Gao89 well block, Shengli Oilfield. First, the sand and mud beds are separated based on the structural characteristics of the thin sand beds and then the S-wave velocity as a function of reservoir pressure and porosity is calculated. Finally, synthetic seismic seismograms are generated based on the predicted P- and S-wave velocities at different stages of CO2 injection.
