Natural analogue studies

Abstract

Lessons learned from sites where CO2 has naturally been stored for long geologic periods of time provides valuable information for assessing proposed anthropogenic storage sites. This chapter discusses the natural CO2 storage analogue sites and looks at them worldwide to determine which geological characteristics are preferable for natural CO2 storage and which are not. Following this, an approach is presented based on geomechanical facies, for a comparative assessment of storage sites, accounting for features observed in the natural analogue sites. Finally, a number of anthropogenic storage sites are classified according to the characterization criteria and a detailed description of a number of natural and anthropogenic storage sites are presented.