The Maguelone experimental site is located along the Mediterranean lido of the Gulf of Lions passive margin, 10 km to the South of Montpellier. Limited to the North by a coastal lagoon and to the South by the Mediterranean Sea, this site offers a natural laboratory to study porous coastal reservoirs in a clastic and clay-rich context saturated with mostly saline fluids.

The site in France is not a candidate for CO2 storage. It is destined for the testing of novel geo-electric monitoring technologies

Present status:

 two holes, 50 m apart, one cored down to 63 m depth (2003)
 (6 holes drilled/cored at regional scale; MAG-1 cased with PVC, open at the base);
 thorough sedimentological and petrophysical analyses from core;
 downhole logs in both holes, repeated for calibration purposes (induction);
 surface electrical (poor) and seismic images at shallow depth;
 downhole electrical observatory in place since 2004.

Role of Maguelone site in the MUSTANG project:

The following activities are undertaken in the Maguelone site as part of the MUSTANG project:

 drill 5 new holes at shallow depth (25 m), one of them cored;
 completed dowhole logs in all holes, with MST core logging from GEOTEK bench;
 construction of a single injection hole in the 3 m thick conglomerate (~15 m depth);
 set-up of 4 new downhole observatories (electrical, acoustical & hydrodynamic); with surface arrays (electrical and   acoustical) in order to compare surface and downhole monitoring methods (while injecting air in the conglomerate);
 as part of the previous, test of the « 1500 m capacity » imaGeau electrical; monitoring device in terms of downhole   communications.