A laboratory study on capillary sealing efficiency of Iranian shale and anhydrite caprocks

• Gas breakthrough experiments were conducted using CO2, N2 and CH4 gases.
• Capillary sealing efficiency of shale was determined as a low quality seal.
• The anhydrite caprock is appropriate for long term safety of underground CO2 storage.
• Seal samples showed a better sealing performance for CH4 rather than N2 and CO2.
• Low effective permeability of gas was measured at high capillary breakthrough pressure.

Caprock has the most important role in the long term safety of formation gas storage. The caprocks trap fluid accumulated beneath, contribute to lateral migration of this fluid and impede its upward migration. The rapid upward passage of invasive plumes due to buoyancy pressure is prevented by capillary pressure within these seal rocks. In the present study, two main seal rocks, from the Zagros basin in the southwest of Iran, a shale core sample of Asmari formation and an anhydrite core sample of Gachsaran formation, were provided. Absolute permeabilities of shale and anhydrite cores, considering the Klinkenberg effect, were measured as 6.09 × 10−18 and 0.89 × 10−18 m2, respectively. Capillary sealing efficiency of the cores was investigated using gas breakthrough experiments. To do so, two distinct techniques including step by step and residual capillary pressure approaches were performed, using carbon dioxide, nitrogen and methane gases at temperatures of 70 and 90 °C, under confining pressures in the range 24.13–37.92 MPa. In the first technique, it was found that capillary breakthrough pressure of the cores varies in the range from 2.76 to 34.34 MPa. Moreover, the measurements indicated that after capillary breakthrough, gas effective permeabilities lie in range 1.85 × 10−21 – 1.66 × 10−19 m2. In the second technique, the minimum capillary displacement pressure of shale varied from 0.66 to 1.45 MPa with the maximum effective permeability around 7.76 × 10−21 – 6.69 × 10−20 m2. The results indicate that anhydrite caprock of the Gachsaran formation provides proper capillary sealing efficacy, suitable for long term storage of the injected CO2 plumes, due to its higher capillary breakthrough pressure and lower gas effective permeability.