Carbon dioxide injection in carbonate reservoirs – a review of CO 2 ‐water‐rock interaction studies

Carbon dioxide injection in geological formations is currently a common procedure in several reservoirs worldwide. More recently, it has been considered a permanent storage solution, avoiding emission to the atmosphere from large industrial sources. Also, it is largely employed in the oil & gas exploration industry, for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. However, it is a known fact that injection of large amounts of CO 2 into geological reservoirs may lead to a series of alterations due to chemical and physical interactions with minerals and fluids, especially in carbonate or carbonate‐rich reservoirs. Experimental and numerical models have been employed in many studies in the past, to investigate these effects on the geological environment. So far, most of these studies focused on siliciclastic formations, whereas carbonate reservoirs, which are known to be much more chemically reactive when interacting with CO 2 , were much less investigated. We present a review of experimental and numerical models that have been employed for studying CO 2 ‐water‐rock interactions, and their application to the investigation of the impact in carbonate reservoir quality and integrity caused by the injection of carbon dioxide. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.