CCS Project Database
Company/Alliance: Big Sky Partnership (lead by Montana State University-Bozeman), Schlumberger Carbon Services, Vecta Oil & Gas Ltd, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Los Alamos National Lab
Location: Northern Montana, USA
Start Date: 2016
Size: 0.125 Mt/yr (Total of 1 Mt/CO2 )
CO2 Source: Naturally occurring reservoir at Kevin Dome
Storage: Saline Aquifer: The Duperow Formation (3900 ft)
Motivation/Economics:
Total Award Value ($1 million U.S).
DOE Share $750 000 U.S. Performer Share $250 000 U.S.
Comments:
On May 5, 2014 the Big Sky Partnership broke ground and started drilling the first production well. The production well will be used to extract naturally-occurring CO2 from underground.
The overall goal of the project is to demonstrate Kevin Dome as a viable and safe target for regional CO2 emissions. Kevin Dome is a geologic feature that covers 700 square miles and contains naturally occurring CO2 that has been trapped in place for millions of years. The Big Sky partnership will extract the CO2 from the dome and then transport the CO2 in a 2” diameter pipeline approximately 6 miles to the injection site. The CO2 will be injected into layers which do not currently contain CO2. This will allow study of the CO2 and how it interacts with the rocks. There will be four monitoring wells around one injection well. Assessing the Kevin Dome will be beneficial for other carbon storage projects because Kevin Dome is similar to several other domes in the Big Sky region.
Research indicates that the CO2 trapped in the dome was formed approximately 50 million years ago. The CO2 at Kevin Dome has remained in place for millions of years trapped by cap rocks and due to the buoyancy of the CO2. Within Kevin Dome, there are impermeable carbonates, shales and anhydrite rocks that overly the Duperow formation and prevent the CO2 from escaping. The fact that the CO2 in Kevin Dome has already been trapped for millions of years is an indication that it could potentially store additional CO2 safely and securely.
The first on-the-ground activity was the seismic survey. Work on the seismic survey began in early December 2011 and continued through March 2012. The seismic crew suspended work for the spring and summer and finish up in the fall and winter of 2012. In the characterization study released in January 2012 Big Sky announced that Kevin Dome had the potential to safely store million of tons of CO2.
The Big Sky regional partnership region encompasses Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota, eastern Washington and Oregon. The original project was at Riley Ridge on the LaBarge platform in Wyoming. However this project was cancelled as the project received money from the DOE but the project never got initiated.
Deliverables:
Site characterization 2011
Characterization study released in January 2012 showed good reservoir integrity to safely store CO2.
Injection from 2013 to 2017 (the project has not started injection as of December 2015)
Post Injection monitoring 2017 to 2019
Project Link: Big Sky Partnership website
Other Sources and Press Releases:
Kevin Dome, Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (August 2015)
Area 1: Geomechanical Monitoring for CO 2 Hub Storage: Production and Injection at Kevin Dome Phase II [PDF] (November 2014)
Kevin Dome CO2 storage project overview [PDF]
Geomechanical Monitoring for CO2 HUB Storage: Production and Injection at Kevin Dome
