An Integrated Risk Management and Decision-Support System for Ensuring the Integrity of Underground Natural Gas Storage Infrastructure in California

Develop a risk assessment and management methodology and framework to improve underground natural gas storage security.

Resiliency, Health, and Safety

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Recipient

Berkeley, CA

Recipient Location

9th

Senate District

14th

Assembly District

beenhere

$2,975,761

Amount Spent

closed

Completed

Project Status

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Project Result

LBNL has forged ahead with the project since last year. The team has made excellent progress on analytical model development by completing the reservoir model, the geomechanical model and wellbore model for the Honor Rancho underground storage facility. The team overcame the challenges associated with drone survey by replacing a subcontractor and obtaining access to a synthetic well site. The supervisory interface has been further developed and improved for data visualization. The project is projected to end on July 30, 2021. The final report has been submitted and reviewed, and final meeting has been scheduled.

The Issue

A large amount of natural gas is stored deep underground at high pressure in California. Many of the wells used currently for natural gas storage were designed decades ago for oil and gas production and the stresses they encounter today when used for natural gas injection/withdrawal were not considered during the original well design process. Rigorous monitoring programs and surface leakage surveys at regular intervals are needed based on age and/or history of integrity-monitoring results. There is an urgent need for a risk management system that is thorough, robust, and reliable to help guide early damage detection and leak prevention.

Project Innovation

The project will develop an Integrated Risk Management and Decision Support System (IRMDSS) to improve underground natural gas storage safety. The IRMDSS will be designed for: a) real-time warning of imminent risks, b) long-term assessment of evolving risks, and c) early leakage/damage detection. The IRMDSS will build its model based on existing site characteristics and data to predict potential risks. The risk assessment framework model will be created to predict reservoir pressures (to be compared to maximum or minimum allowed pressure), predict risk of leakage, and evaluate wellbore leakages if there is leakage detected.

Project Benefits

Unlike traditional asset and risk management approaches, the IRMDSS will merge process models with continuous reevaluation and assessment to provide indicators of potential threats. The IRMDSS will demonstrate a scheme to update its risk models based on real-time data collected in the field. Therefore, gas operators will be able to update the risk levels frequently for more accurate prediction. This will provide greater reliability, lower costs, and increased safety for the gas supply system.

Affordability

The quantitative predictive methodology developed by the project will enable change of operations or early preventative engineering measures to prevent failure or damage, thus lowering mitigation costs through condition-based maintenance.

Environmental Sustainability

Early prevention and detection of failure will minimize methane leaks and thereby reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Reliability

The IRMDSS will improve the reliability of the gas supply by predicting the potential occurrence of gas leaks with advanced monitoring and process-based modeling, recommending preventive and corrective measures that can be taken before leaks happen, and informing decisions on mitigation measures when low-level, or large leaks occur.