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Sean T. Brennan

Sean Brennan is a Research Geologist with the USGS Geology, Energy & Minerals (GEM) Science Center in Reston, VA.

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Utilization of Carbon and other Energy Gases - Geologic Research and Assessments

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is utilized by industry to enhance oil recovery. Subsurface CO2 storage could significantly impact reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, but the economics and potential risks associated with the practice must be understood before implementing extensive programs or regulations. Utilization of other energy-related gases such as helium (He), if separated and concentrated...
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center
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Utilization of Carbon and other Energy Gases - Geologic Research and Assessments

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is utilized by industry to enhance oil recovery. Subsurface CO2 storage could significantly impact reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, but the economics and potential risks associated with the practice must be understood before implementing extensive programs or regulations. Utilization of other energy-related gases such as helium (He), if separated and concentrated...
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Geologic Carbon Dioxide and Energy-related Storage, Gas Resources, and Utilization

The objectives of this task are to conduct relevant research needed to 1) evaluate helium (He) and CO2 resources; 2) support future assessments of low-thermal gases and better understand their resources and potential for use as analogues for anthropogenic CO2 storage; 3) study the feasibility of large-scale CO2 mineralization in the United States; 4) develop pressure-limited dynamic models for...
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center
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Geologic Carbon Dioxide and Energy-related Storage, Gas Resources, and Utilization

The objectives of this task are to conduct relevant research needed to 1) evaluate helium (He) and CO2 resources; 2) support future assessments of low-thermal gases and better understand their resources and potential for use as analogues for anthropogenic CO2 storage; 3) study the feasibility of large-scale CO2 mineralization in the United States; 4) develop pressure-limited dynamic models for...
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National assessment of carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention resources - data release

In 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a probabilistic assessment of the volume of technically recoverable oil resources available if current carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technologies were applied in amenable oil reservoirs underlying the onshore and State waters area of the conterminous United States. The assessment also includes estimates of the magnitude of CO2 s
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Natural Gas Compositional Analyses Dataset of Gases from United States Wells

This dataset was created to document the natural occurrence of helium and carbon dioxide throughout the United States. This dataset is sourced primarily from publicly available data from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Federal Helium Program and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The Federal Helium Program, which originally began in 1925 under the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) has analyzed thous
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Dataset of Helium Concentrations in United States Wells

This dataset provides national scale location information for known, publicly available, data on helium gas concentrations, reported in mol%. The dataset was created as part of the effort by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct an assessment of helium resources in accordance with the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013, Public Law 113-40. The data were collected from the USGS Energy Ge
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Microbiology of the greater Bravo Dome region

Bravo Dome is a commercial natural CO2 field that supplies the gas to depleted oil fields for enhanced oil recovery. In order to understand the distribution of CO2 across the greater Bravo Dome region, including southeastern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, and to assess the impacts of high CO2 concentrations on microbes in the subsurface, 7 samples were collected from sites associated with h
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center
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Geologic carbon management options for the North Atlantic-Appalachian Region

IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) North Atlantic-Appalachian Region is developing the regionwide capacity to provide timely science support for decision-makers attempting to enhance carbon removal, sequestration, and emissions mitigation to meet national atmospheric carbon reduction goals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that in 2021, the fourteen States and the
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Peter D. Warwick, Madalyn S. Blondes, Sean T. Brennan, Steven M. Cahan, C. Özgen Karacan, Kevin D. Kroeger, Matthew D. Merrill
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

A residual oil zone (ROZ) assessment methodology with application to the central basin platform (Permian Basin, USA) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and long-term geologic CO2 storage

Residual oil zones (ROZ) form due to various geologic conditions and are located below the oil/water contact (OWC) of main pay zones (MPZ). Since ROZs usually contain immobile oil, they have not typically been considered commercially attractive for development by conventional primary recovery methods used in the initial phases of oil production. However, during the last decade some operators of th
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C. Özgen Karacan, Sean T. Brennan, Marc L. Buursink, Philip A. Freeman, Celeste D. Lohr, Matthew D. Merrill, Ricardo A. Olea, Peter D. Warwick
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Geologic energy storage

Introduction As the United States transitions away from fossil fuels, its economy will rely on more renewable energy. Because current renewable energy sources sometimes produce variable power supplies, it is important to store energy for use when power supply drops below power demand. Battery storage is one method to store power. However, geologic (underground) energy storage may be able to retain
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Marc L. Buursink, Steven T. Anderson, Sean T. Brennan, Erick R. Burns, Philip A. Freeman, Joao S. Gallotti, Celeste D. Lohr, Matthew D. Merrill, Eric A. Morrissey, Michelle R. Plampin, Peter D. Warwick
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Assessing global geologic carbon dioxide storage resources

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG), and the Clean Energy Ministerial Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Initiative (CEM-CCUS Initiative), plans to work with partner nations to assess geologic carbon dioxide (CO2) storage resources glo
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Sean T. Brennan, Peter D. Warwick, Anhar Karimjee, Adam Y. Wong, Timothy Dixon, James Craig, Juho Lipponen
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 13 critical minerals in the conterminous United States and Puerto Rico — Antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, helium, magnesium, manganese, potash, uranium, vanadiu

The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) is conducted in phases to identify areas for acquiring new geologic framework data to identify potential domestic resources of the 35 mineral materials designated as critical minerals for the United States. This report describes the data sources and summary results for 13 critical minerals evaluated in the conterminous United States and Puerto Ric
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Jane M. Hammarstrom, Connie L. Dicken, Laurel G. Woodruff, Allen K. Andersen, Sean T. Brennan, Warren C. Day, Benjamin J. Drenth, Nora K. Foley, Susan Hall, Albert H. Hofstra, Anne E. McCafferty, Anjana K. Shah, David A. Ponce
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Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Mineral Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI)

National assessment of carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention resources — Summary

IntroductionIn 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a probabilistic assessment of the volume of technically recoverable oil resources that might be produced by using current carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technologies in amenable conventional oil reservoirs underlying the onshore and State waters areas of the conterminous United States. The assessment also includes est
Authors
Peter D. Warwick, Emil D. Attanasi, Madalyn S. Blondes, Sean T. Brennan, Marc L. Buursink, Steven M. Cahan, Colin A. Doolan, Philip A. Freeman, C. Özgen Karacan, Celeste D. Lohr, Matthew D. Merrill, Ricardo A. Olea, Jenna L. Shelton, Ernie R. Slucher, Brian A. Varela
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

National assessment of carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention resources — Results

In 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed a probabilistic assessment of the volume of technically recoverable oil resources available if current carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technologies were applied to amenable oil reservoirs underlying the onshore and State waters areas of the conterminous United States. The assessment also includes estimates of the mass of CO2 that
Authors
Peter D. Warwick, Emil D. Attanasi, Madalyn S. Blondes, Sean T. Brennan, Marc L. Buursink, Steven M. Cahan, Colin A. Doolan, Philip A. Freeman, C. Özgen Karacan, Celeste D. Lohr, Matthew D. Merrill, Ricardo A. Olea, Jenna L. Shelton, Ernie R. Slucher, Brian A. Varela
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

National assessment of helium resources within known natural gas reservoirs

Using available data, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that 306 billion cubic feet of recoverable helium is presently within the known geologic natural gas reservoirs of the United States.
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Sean T. Brennan, Jennifer L. Rivera, Brian A. Varela, Andy J. Park
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Compositional analysis of formation water geochemistry and microbiology of commercial and carbon dioxide-rich wells in the southwestern United States

Studies of naturally occurring subsurface carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulations can provide useful information for potential CO2 injection projects; however, the microbial communities and formation water geochemistry of most reservoirs are understudied. Formation water and microbial biomass were sampled at four CO2-rich reservoir sites: two within Bravo Dome, a commercial CO2 field in New Mexico; one
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Jenna L. Shelton, Robert S. Andrews, Denise M. Akob, Christina A. DeVera, Adam C. Mumford, Mark Engle, Michelle R. Plampin, Sean T. Brennan
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Reston Microbiology Laboratory

Methodology for estimating the prospective CO2 storage resource of residual oil zones at the national and regional scale

Residual oil zones (ROZs) are increasingly gaining interest as potential reservoirs for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage. Here, we present a national- and regional-scale methodology for estimating prospective CO2 storage resources in residual oil zones. This methodology uses a volumetric equation that accounts for CO2 storage as a free phase in pore space and as a dissolved phase in oil and does not a
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Sean Sanguinito, Harpreet Singh, Evgeniy M. Myshakin, Angela L. Goodman, Robert M. Dilmore, Timothy C. Grant, David Morgan, Grant Bromhal, Peter D. Warwick, Sean T. Brennan, Philip A. Freeman, C. Özgen Karacan, Charles Gorecki, Wesley Peck, Matthew Burton-Kelly, Neil Dotzenrod, Scott Frailey, Rajesh Pawar
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil and gas resources in the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa marine shale of the U.S. Gulf Coast, 2018

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed mean undiscovered, technically recoverable continuousresources of 1.5 billion barrels of oil and 4.6 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa marine shale in onshore and State waters ofLouisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
Authors
Paul C. Hackley, Catherine B. Enomoto, Brett J. Valentine, William A. Rouse, Celeste D. Lohr, Frank T. Dulong, Javin J. Hatcherian, Sean T. Brennan, William H. Craddock, Thomas M. Finn, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Kristen R. Marra, Tracey J. Mercier, Stanley T. Paxton, Katherine J. Whidden, Cheryl A. Woodall, Christopher J. Schenk
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Chemical and isotopic evidence for CO2 charge and migration within Bravo Dome and potential CO2 leakage to the southwest

Gas analyses from northeastern New Mexico, USA indicate that previous interpretations of the location of gas charge into the northeastern portion of Bravo Dome are likely correct, and that there may be multiple migration pathways from the same source for different regions in northeastern New Mexico.
Authors
Sean T. Brennan
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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Natural Gas Compositional Analyses Dataset of Gases from United States Wells - Viewer

The purpose of this database is to provide a publicly available and spatially referenced national dataset of natural gas geochemistry.

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Energy Resources Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center
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USGS Estimates 306 Billion Cubic Feet of Recoverable Helium in the United States

The natural gas reservoirs of the United States contain an estimated 306 billion cubic feet of recoverable helium, according to a new report from the...

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