First account of resistivity borehole micro-imaging (FMI) to assess the sedimentology and structure of the Preesall Halite, NW England : implications for gas storage and wider applications in CCS caprock assessment.

UK future energy infrastructure will include solution-mined salt caverns in bedded halite deposits providing short to medium term, fast-cycle underground gas storage volumes. Assessing the stratigraphy, sedimentology and structure of halite beds is essential for understanding and developing gas storage caverns. This paper highlights perhaps the first application of Schlumberger’s FMI (TM) resistivity borehole imaging tool to characterize and provide a detailed understanding of bedded halites. Widely used in the hydrocarbons industry for over 20 years the potential value of such tools has yet to be fully recognized in the solution mining industry and is applied to the Triassic Preesall Halite in NW England with promising results. There may be wider applications in, for example, CCS caprock assessment.