The Heartland Area Redwater CO2 Storage Project (HARP): Results of Phase I site characterization

AbstractThe Heartland Area Redwater CO2 Storage Project (HARP) is a staged CO2 storage project located near Edmonton in the industrial heartland of Alberta, Canada. The project, being developed by ARC Resources Ltd. of Calgary, aims to store CO2 captured from diverse sources into the very large Redwater Leduc Fm. carbonate reef situated at depths between 922 and 1234 m and with a thickness of up to 275 m. In the first stage, a pilot operation will be implemented by the spring of 2011 that will inject between 200 and 300 t CO2/day. In the second stage, depending on the regulatory and economic environment, the pilot may be scaled up to a commercial-sized operation by 2015 that will inject at least 1 Mt CO2/year. Each stage of the project has several phases, with Stage I/Phase I having been completed in the summer of 2009. Work focused on the characterization of the storage unit: Namely, the Redwater reef, its caprock, and the immediately underlying and overlying aquifers. In Stage I/Phase II, injection and monitoring wells will be drilled and site-specific characterization and pilot design will be completed, while at the same time seeking regulatory approval and community acceptance for the pilot operation. In Stage I/Phase III, the pilot operation will be constructed. A multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational research program comprising major research organizations and universities in western Canada is being built around this CO2 storage project. This paper presents the results of Phase I of the project: Characterization of the storage unit and adjacent strata