The Adavale Basin, home to the Boree Salt, is a potential option for underground hydrogen storage (UHS) due to its close proximity to industrial infrastructure, existing pipelines and significant renewable energy sources. This study builds upon a previously constructed 3D geological model to examine the feasibility of developing salt caverns for UHS. The study integrates well data and regional geology, as well as analyses on mineralogy, geochemistry and petrophysical and geomechanical properties of the Boree Salt. Results highlight that the Boree Salt is predominantly halite (96.5%), with a net salt thickness of ~540 m encountered in Bury 1, and has excellent seal properties. Furthermore, the formation overburden pressure gradient implies favourable conditions for storing hydrogen in the Boree Salt. To illustrate the feasibility of UHS, a conceptual design of a cylindrical salt cavern at depth intervals of 1600 – 1950 m is presented. A single 60 m diameter cavern could provide up to 203 GWh (or ~ 6000 tonnes) of hydrogen energy storage. Further investigation to improve our understanding on the Boree Salt extent is recommended.

Natural hydrogen is receiving increasing interest as a potential low-carbon fuel. There are various mechanisms for natural hydrogen generation but the reduction of water during oxidation of iron in minerals is recognised to be the major source of naturally generated H2. While the overall reaction is well known, the identity and nature of the key rate limiting steps is less understood. This study investigates the dominant reaction pathways through the use of kinetic modelling. The modelling results suggest there are a number of conditions required for effective H2 production from iron minerals. These include the presence of ultramafic minerals that are particularly high in Fe rather than Mg content, pH in the range of 8 to 10, solution temperatures in the 200 to 300oC range, and strongly reducing conditions. High reaction surface area is key and this could be achieved by the presence of finely deposited material and/or assemblages of high porosity or with mineral assemblages with surface sites that are accessible to water. Finally, conditions favouring the co-deposition of Ni together with FeO/Fe(OH)2-containing minerals such as brucite (and, possibly, magnetite) could enhance H2 generation

The discovery of strategically located salt structures, which meet the requirements for geological storage of hydrogen, is crucial to meeting Australia’s ambitions to become a major hydrogen producer, user and exporter. The use of the AusAEM airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey’s conductivity sections, integrated with multidisciplinary geoscientific datasets, provides an excellent tool for investigating the near-surface effects of salt-related structures, and contributes to assessment of their potential for underground geological hydrogen storage. Currently known salt in the Canning Basin includes the Mallowa and Minjoo salt units. The Mallowa Salt is 600-800 m thick over an area of 150 × 200 km, where it lies within the depth range prospective for hydrogen storage (500-1800 m below surface), whereas the underlying Minjoo Salt is generally less than 100 m thick within its much smaller prospective depth zone. The modelled AEM sections penetrate to ~500 m from the surface, however, the salt rarely reaches this level. We therefore investigate the shallow stratigraphy of the AEM sections for evidence of the presence of underlying salt or for the influence of salt movement evident by disruption of near-surface electrically conductive horizons. These horizons occur in several stratigraphic units, mainly of Carboniferous to Cretaceous age. Only a few examples of localised folding/faulting have been noted in the shallow conductive stratigraphy that have potentially formed above isolated salt domes. Distinct zones of disruption within the shallow conductive stratigraphy generally occur along the margins of the present-day salt depocentre, resulting from dissolution and movement of salt during several stages. This study demonstrates the potential AEM has to assist in mapping salt-related structures, with implications for geological storage of hydrogen. In addition, this study produces a regional near-surface multilayered chronostratigraphic interpretation, which contributes to constructing a 3D national geological architecture, in support of environmental management, hazard mapping and resource exploration. <b>Citation: </b>Connors K. A., Wong S. C. T., Vilhena J. F. M., Rees S. W. & Feitz A. J., 2022. Canning Basin AusAEM interpretation: multilayered chronostratigraphic mapping and investigating hydrogen storage potential. In: Czarnota, K (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/146376

This data package provides seismic interpretations that have been generated in support of the energy resource assessments under the Australia’s Future Energy Resources (AFER) project. Explanatory notes are also included. The AFER project is part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) Program—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and precompetitive information acquisition program to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, Geoscience Australia is building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This will help support a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. The EFTF program is supporting Australia’s transition to a low emissions economy, industry and agriculture sectors, as well as economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. Further details are available at http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf. The seismic interpretations build on the recently published interpretations by Szczepaniak et al. (2023) by providing updated interpretations in the AFER Project area for the Top Cadna-owie (CC10) and Top Pre-Permian (ZU) horizons, as well as interpretations for 13 other horizons that define the tops of play intervals being assessed for their energy resource potential (Figure 1). Seismic interpretations for the AFER Project are constrained by play interval tops picked on well logs that have been tied to the seismic profiles using time-depth data from well completion reports. The Pedirka and Western Eromanga basins are underexplored and contain relatively sparse seismic and petroleum well data. The AFER Project has interpreted play interval tops in 41 wells, 12 seismic horizons (Top Cadna-owie and underlying horizons) on 238 seismic lines (9,340 line kilometres), and all 15 horizons on 77 recently reprocessed seismic lines (3,370 line kilometres; Figure 2). Note that it has only been possible to interpret the Top Mackunda-Winton, Top Toolebuc-Allaru and Top Wallumbilla horizons on the reprocessed seismic lines as these are the only data that provide sufficient resolution in the shallow stratigraphic section to confidently interpret seismic horizons above the Top Cadna-owie seismic marker. The seismic interpretations are provided as point data files for 15 horizons, and have been used to constrain the zero edges for gross-depositional environment maps in Bradshaw et al. (2023) and to produce depth-structure and isochore maps for each of the 14 play intervals in Iwanec et al. (2023). The data package includes the following datasets: 1) Seismic interpretation point file data in two-way-time for up to 15 horizons using newly reprocessed seismic data and a selection of publicly available seismic lines (Appendix A). 2) Geographical layers for the seismic lines used to interpret the top Cadna-owie and underlying horizons (Cadnaowie_to_TopPrePermian_Interpretation.shp), and the set of reprocessed lines used to interpret all 15 seismic horizons (All_Horizons_Interpretation.shp; Appendix B). These seismic interpretations are being used to support the AFER Project’s play-based energy resource assessments in the Pedirka and Western Eromanga basins.

<div>The Carpentaria Basin is a Mesozoic basin located in the northernmost part of Australia and is centered around the Gulf of Carpentaria . It forms part of the Great Australian Superbasin that includes the Eromanga, Surat, Nambour and Clarence-Morton basins to the south, the Laura Basin, to the east, and the Papuan Basin to the north. In a west-east direction it extends for about 1250 km from the area of Katherine in the Northern Territory to the Great Dividing Range in Queensland. A small portion of the basin reaches the east coast of Queensland in the Olive River region. In a north-south direction it extends for over 1000 km from Cape York to Cloncurry, in Queensland. The basin has a total area of over 750,000 km2, comparable in size to the state of New South Wales. From a geographic standpoint the sediments of the Carpentaria Basin occur in three areas: offshore below the Gulf of Carpentaria, onshore to the west in the Northern Territory, and onshore to the east in Queensland. This report focuses on the geology and energy resource potential of the onshore areas of the basin but, to provide a broader understanding of the basin evolution there is, of necessity, some discussion of the geology offshore.</div><div><br></div>

<div>Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is gaining momentum globally. The Global CCS Institute notes in their Status of CCS 2023 report that there are 26 carbon capture and storage projects under construction and a further 325 projects in development, with a total capture capacity of 361 million tonnes per year (Mt/y) of carbon dioxide (CO2). Some CCS projects require the extraction of brackish or saline water (referred to here on in as brine) from the storage formation to manage increased pressure resulting from CO2 injection and/or to optimise subsurface storage space. It is important to consider the management of extracted brine as the CCS industry scales up due to implications for project design, cost and location as well as for the responsible management of the ‘waste’ or by-product brine. The use and disposal of reservoir brine has been investigated for CCS projects around the world, but not for Australian conditions. We have undertaken this review to explore how extracted brine could potentially be managed by CCS projects across Australia.&nbsp;</div>

The ‘Australia’s Future Energy Resources’ (AFER) project is a four-year multidisciplinary investigation of the potential energy commodity resources in selected onshore sedimentary basins. The resource assessment component of the project incorporates a series of stacked sedimentary basins in the greater Pedirka-western Eromanga region in eastern central Australia. Using newly reprocessed seismic data and applying spatially enabled, exploration play-based mapping tools, a suite of energy commodity resources have been assessed for their relative prospectivity. One important aspects of this study has been the expansion of the hydrocarbon resource assessment work flow to include the evaluation of geological storage of carbon dioxide (GSC) opportunities. This form of resource assessment is likely to be applied as a template for future exploration and resource development, since the storage of greenhouse gases has become paramount in achieving the net-zero emissions target. It is anticipated that the AFER project will be able to highlight future exploration opportunities that match the requirement to place the Australian economy firmly on the path of decarbonisation.

The integrated use of seismic and gravity data can help to assess the potential for underground hydrogen storage in salt caverns in the offshore Polda Basin, South Australia. Geophysical integration software was trialled to perform simultaneous modelling of seismic amplitudes and traveltime information, gravity, and gravity gradients within a 2.5D cross-section. The models were calibrated to existing gravity data, seismic and well logs improving mapping of the salt thickness and depth away from well control. Models included known salt deposits in the offshore parts of the basin and assessed the feasibility for detection of potential salt deposits in the onshore basin, where there is limited well and seismic coverage. The modelling confirms that candidate salt cavern storage sites with salt thicknesses greater than 400-500 m should be detectable on low altitude airborne gravity surveys. Identification of lower cost onshore storage sites will require careful calibration of gravity models against measured data, rather than relying on the observation of rounded anomalies associated with salt diapirism. Ranking of the most prospective storage sites could be optimized after the acquisition of more detailed gravity and gradiometry data, preferably accompanied by seismic reprocessing or new seismic data acquisition.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a central component of many proposed pathways to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. Even under conservative estimates, successful deployment of CCS projects at scale will require a substantial investment in the selection and development of new sequestration sites. While several studies have considered the potential costs associated with individual sequestration projects, and others have evaluated the costs of capture and sequestration in a generic manner, few have examined how regional differences in transport distances and reservoir properties may affect the overall costs of sequestration projects. In this abstract, we outline a new model to assess the costs associated with new carbon sequestration projects. The model evaluates the cost of CCS projects accounting for regional variations in transport distance and cost and well the storage properties of individual reservoirs. We present preliminary results from the modelling tool, highlighting potential opportunities for new CCS projects.

<div>The Adavale Basin is located approximately 850 km west-northwest of Brisbane and southwest of Longreach in south-central Queensland. The basin system covers approximately 100,000 km2 and represents an Early to Late Devonian (Pragian to Famennian) depositional episode, which was terminated in the Famennian by widespread contractional deformation, regional uplift and erosion. </div><div>Burial and thermal history models were constructed for nine wells using existing open file data to assess the lateral variation in maturity and temperature for potential source rocks in the Adavale Basin, and to provide an estimate of the hydrocarbon generation potential in the region.</div>