This study looks at the question of whether time-lapse gravity measurements could be used to monitor the density and geometry carbon dioxide plume in the ground for a typical Gippsland Basin reservoir. The considerations made indicate that gravity measurements would not be suitable as a means to detect carbon dioxide density, distribution and movement in a reservoir the size of the West Seahorse field. The maximum gravity anomaly that would be expected is calculated to be 1.4 -Gal, while the experience in other parts of the world, using sensitive sea floor gravity metres, indicate that at present this technology can resolve about 5 -Gal. Furthermore, the horizontal and vertical gradients of the maximum anomaly are of the order of 0.007 E ( 0.007 ?m/s2/km), while the most sensitive reported airship measurements of gravity gradient are reported to be resolving of the order of 1.7 E.

In mid 2011 the Australian Government announced funding of a new four year National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to accelerate the identification and development of sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 in Australia that are within reasonable distances of major energy and industrial CO2 emission sources. The NCIP program promotes pre-competitive storage exploration and provides a basis for the development of transport and storage infrastructure. The Plan follows on from recommendations from the Carbon Storage Taskforce and the National CCS Council (formerly, the National Low Emissions Coal Council). It builds on the work funded under the National Low Emissions Coal Initiative and the need for adequate storage to be identified as a national priority. Geoscience Australia is providing strategic advice in delivering the plan and will lead in the acquisition of pre-competitive data. Four offshore sedimentary basins (Bonaparte, Browse, Perth and Gippsland basins) and several onshore basins have been identified for pre-competitive data acquisition and study. The offshore Petrel Sub-basin is located in Bonaparte Basin, in NW Australia, has been identified as a potential carbon storage hub for CO2 produced as a by-product from future LNG processing associated with the development of major gas accumulations on the NW Shelf. The aim of the project is to determine if the sub-basin is suitable for long-term storage, and has the potential capacity to be a major storage site. The project began in June 2011 and will be completed by July 2013. As part of the project, new 2D seismic data will be acquired in an area of poor existing seismic coverage along the boundary of the two Greenhouse Gas Assessment Areas, which were released in 2009.

No abstract available

This series of cross sections and data show the suitablility of the Sydney Basin for storage of carbon dioxide.Cartography file number 07-1825-1.

A study conducted under the Storage Programme of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC), investigating the potential for CO2 storage in the southern portion of the Perth Basin. The aim was to identify the sites most suitable for future carbon capture and storage projects (CCS) surrounding the emission centres of the Perth region. The study employed the methods developed under the GEODISC program: Project 2- Site Specific Studies, wherein a site is assessed for its CO2 emissions and site details; geology and stratigraphy; reservoir capacity; containment potential; and impacts on natural resources.

The Recherche Archipelago lies within the westernmost reaches of the Great Australian Bight, a large cool-water carbonate depositional province on the southern Australian margin. The inner shelf of the archipelago comprises numerous islands, typically comprising Proterozoic granites, which protrude from the shelf of mainly recent carbonate sediments. The area is influenced by extreme Southern Ocean swell energy, which results in a typically wave-abraded inner shelf, and sediment deposition mainly on the mid- to outer shelf. For Esperance Bay, a large shallow-water embayment within the archipelago, we examined the relationships between bottom sediments, geomorphology and the distribution of biotic habitats by integrating multibeam sonar, underwater video and sediment grab sample information. Major benthic habitats, such as seagrass beds, rhodolith beds, rocky reefs and mobile sand sheets are characterised in terms of their sea bed morphology, sedimentology and bioclastic composition. The littoral zone comprises mature quartz sand dominated by seagrasses, whereas the mainly carbonate-dominated shelf sediments are typically coarse gravely sands, and contain significant quantities of granitic material that is accumulating in areas of low wave exposure, typically behind the rocky islands. Bioclasts are dominated by red algal, bryozoan and foraminiferal components, as well as relict material. Sediment lags and calcarenite reefs occur in areas of high wave exposure, often with significant covers of macro-algae and sponges. The abundance of sediment producing organisms such as shallow-water rhodoliths and the presence of large-scale mobile sediment bedforms suggests that due to the influence of the rocky islands, the localised production and accumulation of carbonate sediments in the Recherche Archipelago is significantly greater than that observed in other parts of the Great Australian Bight inner shelf.

Methane is present in all coals, but a number of geological factors influence the potential economic concentration of gas. The key factors are (1) depositional environment, (2) tectonic and structural setting, (3) rank and gas generation, (4) gas content, (5) permeability, and (6) hydrogeology. Commercial coal seam gas production in Queensland has been entirely from the Permian coals of the Bowen Basin, but the Jurassic coals of the Surat and Clarence-Moreton basins are poised to deliver commercial gas volumes. Depositional environments range from fluvial to delta plain to paralic and marginal marine coals in the Bowen Basin are laterally more continuous than those in the Surat and Clarence-Moreton basins. The tectonic and structural settings are important as they control the coal characteristics both in terms of deposition and burial history. The important coal seam gas seams were deposited in a foreland setting in the Bowen Basin and an intracratonic setting in the Surat and Clarence-Moreton basins. Both of these settings resulted in widespread coal deposition. The complex burial history of the Bowen Basin has resulted in a wide range of coal ranks and properties. Rank in the Bowen Basin coal seam gas fields varies from vitrinite reflectane of 0.55% to >1.1% Rv and from Rv 0.35-0.6% in the Surat and Clarence-Moreton basins in Queensland. High vitrinite coals provide optimal gas generation and cleat formation. The commercial gas fields and the prospective ones contain coals with >60% vitrinite. Gas generation in the Queensland basins is complex with isotopic studies indicating that biogenic gas, thermogenic gas and mixed gases are present. Biogenic processes occur at depths of up to a kilometre. Gas content is important, but lower gas contents can be economic if deliverability is good. Free gas is also present. Drilling and production techniques play an important role in making lower gas content coals viable. Since the Bowen and Surat basins are in a compressive regime, permeability becomes a defining parameter. Areas where the compression is offset by tensional forces provide the best chances for commercial coal seam gas production. Tensional setting such as anticline or structural hinges are important plays. Hydrodynamics control the production rate though water quality varies between the fields.

The economics of the storage of CO2 in underground reservoirs in Australia have been analysed as part of the Australian Petroleum Cooperative Research Centre's GEODISC program. The analyses are based on cost estimates generated by a CO2 storage technical / economic model developed at the beginning of the GEODISC project. They also rely on data concerning the characteristics of geological reservoirs in Australia. The uncertainties involved in estimating the costs of such projects are discussed and the economics of storing CO2 for a range of CO2 sources and potential storage sites across Australia are presented. The key elements of the CO2 storage process and the methods involved in estimating the costs of CO2 storage are described and the CO2 storage costs for a hypothetical but representative storage project in Australia are derived. The effects of uncertainties inherent in estimating the costs of storing CO2 are shown. The analyses show that the costs are particularly sensitive to parameters such as the CO2 flow rate, the distance between the source and the storage site, the physical properties of the reservoir and the market prices of equipment and services. Therefore, variations in any one of these inputs can lead to significant variation in the costs of CO2 storage. Allowing for reasonable variations in all the inputs together in a Monte Carlo simulation of any particular site, then a large range of total CO2 storage costs is possible. The effect of uncertainty for the hypothetical representative storage site is illustrated. The impact of storing other gases together with CO2 is analysed. The other gases include methane, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen, nitrous oxides and oxides of sulphur, all of which potentially could be captured together with CO2. The effect on storage costs when varying quantities of other gases are injected with the CO2 is shown. Based on the CO2 storage estimates and the published costs capturing CO2 from industrial processes, the econ

The mapping of seabed environments is fundamental to successful fisheries management and environmental monitoring, however, there is an emerging need to better characterise habitats based upon appropriate physical parameters. In this study, relationships between seabed geomorphology and the distribution of benthic habitats were examined using multibeam sonar, underwater video, predicted wave energy, and sediment data for Esperance Bay, part of the Recherche Archipelago. This shallow (<50 m), high energy, biogenic sediment dominated environment is located in temperate southwestern Australia. Exposure to wave energy appears to determine the distribution of unconsolidated substrate, and is the most useful regional scale predictor of rhodolith and seagrass habitats. Although they are intermittently smothered by mobile sediments, limestone reefs provide habitat for a wide range of sessile organisms, even in very high wave exposure environments. The distribution of rhodolith beds is related to poorly sorted sediments that contain high gravel, mud, and CaCO3 percentages. Our results reveal that in the Recherche Archipelago, wave abrasion coupled with localised sediment transport and accumulation play a major role in increasing the diversity of inner shelf benthic habitats. This highlights the value of assessing geomorphic processes in order to better understand the distribution and structure of benthic habitats.

Assessment and Sensitivity Considerations of a Potential Storage Site for Carbon Dioxide A Queensland Case Study Sayers, J.1, Marsh, C.1, Scott, A.1, Cinar, Y.2, Bradshaw, J.1, Hennig, A.3, Barclay, S.4 and Daniel, R.5 Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies 1 Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia 2 School of Petroleum Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia 3 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Petroleum, PO Box 1130, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia 4 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Petroleum, PO Box 136, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia 5 Australian School of Petroleum, Santos Petroleum Engineering Building, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia ABSTRACT Australia's coal-fired power plants produce about 70% of the nation's total installed electricity generation capacity and emit about 190 million tonnes of CO2/year, of which about 44 million tonnes come from central and southeast Queensland. A multi-disciplinary study has identified the onshore Bowen Basin as having potential for geological storage of CO2. Storage potential has been documented within a 295 km2 area on the eastern flank of the Wunger Ridge using a simplified regional 3-D model, and is based on estimating injection rates of 1.2 million tonnes CO2/year for 25 years. Paleogeographic interpretations of the Showgrounds Sandstone reservoir in the targeted injection area indicate a dominantly meandering channel system that grades downdip into a deltaic system. Seismic interpretation indicates a relatively unfaulted seal and reservoir section. The depth to the reservoir extends to 2700 m. CO2 injection simulations indicate that at least one horizontal or two vertical wells would be required to inject at the proposed rate into homogeneous reservoirs with a thickness of approximately 5 m and permeability of 1 darcy. The existence of intra-reservoir shale baffles necessitates additional wells to maintain the necessary injection rate: this is also true for medium-permeability reservoirs. The long-term storage of the injected CO2 involves either stratigraphic and residual gas trapping along a 10 to 15 km migration path, and ultimately, potentially, within updip depleted hydrocarbon fields; or trapping in medium-permeability rocks. Trapping success will be a function of optimal reservoir characteristics including specific permeability ranges and the distribution of seals and baffles. Sensitivity analysis of CO2 injectivity indicates that dissolution effects may increase injection rates by up to 20 %.