Petrophysical characterization of the South Georgia Rift Basin for supercritical CO2 storage: a preliminary assessment

The Triassic–Jurassic South Georgia Rift (SGR) Basin, buried beneath Coastal Plain sediments of southern South Carolina, southeastern Georgia, western Florida, and southern Alabama, consists of an assemblage of continental rift deposits (popularly called red beds), and mafic igneous rocks (basalt flows and diabase sills). The red beds are capped by basalts and/or diabase sills, and constitute the target for supercritical CO₂ storage as part of a Department of Energy funded project to study the feasibility for safe and permanent sequestration. The purpose of this research is to evaluate subsurface suitability for underground CO₂ storage in terms of the local and regional distribution of porous and permeable reservoirs. In addition, unlike shale-capped CO₂ reservoirs, very little is known about the ability of basalts and diabase sills to act as viable seals for CO₂ storage. New results demonstrate the presence of confined porous rocks that may be capable of storing significant quantities of supercritical CO₂. Reservoir thicknesses as high as 420 m and an average porosity as high as 14 % were obtained. The SGR Basin manifests distinct porosity–permeability regimes that are influenced by the depositional environments. These are: a high-porosity, medium/low-permeability zone associated with lacustrine deposits, a medium/low-porosity, low-permeability zone dominated by fluvial fine- to very fine-grained sandstone, and an extremely low porosity and permeability zone characterized by fluvial and alluvial-fan deposits. Analyses further show that the basalt flows and diabase sills are characterized by low porosity as well as high seismic velocities and densities that are favorable to caprock integrity.