The 2022 International Geomechanics Symposium (IGS-2022) took place in Abu Dhabi from November 7^th to 10^th . The event was organized by a multi-society, multi-discipline, and multi-industry committee (ARMA, DGS, SEG, AAPG, CSRMS, SPE, SPWLA) and focused on the role of Geomechanics in Sustainable Energy Supply.

Presentations covered various geomechanics applications in petroleum, mining, geothermal, energy storage, CO₂ Sequestration, reservoir engineering, CCUS, hydrogen storage, geothermal, and new energies. The summit is an international festival for all rock jockeys from operators, technology developers, service providers, researchers, educators, and students.

During the symposium, ANPREC’s Ph.D. student, Amer Alanazi (from ARMS Group led by Prof. Hussein Hoteit), received the best student paper award for his paper titled: “Analysis of capillary sealing efficiency of caprock for H₂ and CO₂ geological storage.”

Alanazi’s work investigated the influence of organic acids and nanofluids on H₂ and CO₂ wettability at reservoir conditions using mica samples and the titled-plate contact angle system. The capillary entry pressure and gas column heights have been calculated to demonstrate the adverse effect of organics. Additionally, the analysis depicted the potential application of nanofluids to mitigate the organic’s influence on H₂ and CO₂ structural trapping capacities and sealing efficiency.

The paper provides a detailed theoretical workflow to assess the capacity of caprock for safe and secure geo-storage projects.