An engineering approach to quantify geomechanical safety factors in UGS programs
G. Isotton
M3E Srl, Padova, Italy
P. Teatini, M. Ferronato, C. Janna
Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
R. Stefanelli, M. Cerri, T. Gukov
Edison Stoccaggio SpA, Milano, Italy
ABSTRACT
Underground Gas Storage (UGS) has become one of the most widely used practices to cope with seasonal
peaks in energy consumption. The planning of any new UGS facility, or its upgrading to increase the
working gas volume and reservoir performance, must be supported by an evaluation of possible
induced effects on the environment. From a geomechanical point of view, storage activity
results in a cyclic change in stressand deformation in the reservoir rock and the surrounding
formations. The main environmental issues to be accounted for when natural fluid pore pressure
is planned to be exceeded are the following: (a) the differential displacements at the land
surface possibly mining the integrity of ground structure; (b) the integrity of the reservoir
and caprock; (c) the possible reactivation of faults, if the target reservoir is located in
a faulted basin; and (d) the vertical upheaval and land subsidence that can impact on the
surface drainage network in low lyingcoastal areas. We present an original methodology for
evaluating the geomechanical safety of UGS activities using an approach derived from what is
traditionally applied in the structural design of buildings. A safety factor, a margin of
security against risks, is defined for each of the geomechanical issues listed above.
First, a 3D FE-IE numerical model is developed to reproduce the stress and displacement due to
the UGS program under evaluation. Then the reservoir pressure is increased until the "failure"
condition is reached allowing to evaluate how far the project designed condition is from the
above limit. The proposed approach is applied to Romagna, a depleted gas reservoir in Northern
Italy converted to UGS, with the aim of investigating the safety of the project to increase
the reservoir pressure up to 120% pi, where pi is the
original reservoir pressure before the start of primary production. The 3D geomechanical
model has been developed using recent 3D seismic data, land displacements by InSAR, lab tests
on reservoir and caprock samples, in-situ Modular Formation Dynamic Tester (MDT) stress tests,
and large background information acquired from other UGS reservoirs located in the same
sedimentary basin. The analysis outcome has revealed that the investigated scenario is safe,
with safety factor larger than 1, in the range from 1.2 to 4. The most critical condition
(the smallest safety factor) has been obtained in relation to the mechanical integrity of
the reservoir formation,
under very conservative conditions (cohesion=0, friction angle=30o).