The Petrel Sub-basin Marine Environmental Survey GA-0335 was acquired by the RV Solander during May 2012 as part of the Commonwealth Government's National Low Emission Coal Initiative (NLECI). The survey was undertaken as a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) . The purpose was to acquire geophysical and biophysical data on shallow (less than 100m water depth) seabed environments within two targeted areas in the Petrel Sub-basin to support investigation for CO2 storage potential in these areas.<p><p>This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes.

The geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) is the process whereby CO2 captured from power plants or other industrial facilities is transported by pipeline to a suitable location and then injected under pressure into a deep geological reservoir formation, where it remains permanently trapped and prevented from entering the atmosphere. The processes by which it is retained in the subsurface are generally those that have trapped oil, gas and naturally generated CO2 for millions of years. The geological formations that can be utilised for this trapping have the same characteristics as those that are able to act as reservoir rocks for petroleum. They have good porosity and permeability and have an overlying sealing formation, which will prevent the trapped fluids migrating out of the storage reservoir and possibly escaping to the surface. In addition, because of the phase behaviour of CO2, efficient storage requires that they are stored at depths greater than 800 below the surface. Unlike oil and gas, which rely primarily on a three dimensional structural trap to prevent them from ultimately rising to the surface, there are additional trapping mechanisms for CO2. Given a sufficiently long migration path within a formation, CO2 will ultimately be rendered immobile by dissolution into the formation water, residual trapping and potentially, over longer time scales, mineralisation. As groundwaters at these depths are generally saline, this type of storage is often termed deep saline aquifer storage. A recent nationwide review by Commonwealth and State geological surveys, as part of the Carbon Storage Taskforce, rated the suitability of geological basins across Australia for geological storage of CO2. The most geologically suitable basins are the offshore Gippsland and North Perth basins but several onshore basins also rate highly. These include the Eromanga, Cooper, Bowen, Galilee, Surat, Canning and Otway basins. The Victorian Government has recently released area for greenhouse gas storage exploration in the Gippsland Basin and the Queensland Government in the Galilee and Surat basins. The aquifers within these basins provide groundwater for human consumption, agriculture, mining, recreation and groundwater dependent ecosystems. The Surat Basin also contains oil and gas accumulations that are being exploited by the onshore petroleum industry. Understanding the existing the groundwater's chemistry and the connectivity between aquifers in the context of its current use is essential in order to determine whether prospective aquifers could be used for geological storage of CO2 without compromising other activities. The potential risks to groundwater from the potential migration of CO2 and changes to groundwater properties that might be expected will also be discussed. Current data gaps include poor hydrogeochemical data coverage for the deeper aquifers and particularly limited data on trace metals and organics. A comparison with experiences learned from enhanced oil recovery using CO2 in North America and the CO2CRC's pilot CO2 injection project in Western Victoria will illustrate some of the unique differences and opportunities for geological storage of CO2 in Australia. Oral presentation at "Groundwater 2010" conference, 31 October - 4th November 2010, Canberra

There remains considerable uncertainty regarding the location, timing and availability of CO2 storage sites in both southeast Queensland and New South Wales. In New South Wales, the main issues relate to the lack of recent or reliable valid geological information that would permit a complete and comprehensive evaluation. Some sedimentary basins appear to contain potential storage reservoirs although they have low permeabilities, and are therefore likely to have low injection rates. In southeast Queensland, recent work has indicated that in some parts of the Bowen and Surat basins CO2 storage is likely to compete with other resources such as groundwater and hydrocarbons. However, current research on the potential storage in deeper saline formations in the southern and western Bowen Basin has provided encouraging results. Storage in deeper stratigraphic units in the central western part of the basin will rely on injection in low permeability formations, and more correlation work is required to define generally narrow storage targets. The Wunger Ridge, in the southern Bowen Basin, however, has promise with both significant storage potential and relatively low geological risk. One area in which there is some potential in both New South Wales and southeast Queensland is CO2 storage in coal seams, as close technical and economic relationships exist between coal bed methane (CBM) field development and operations and CO2 storage. Substantial collaborative research is still required in this area and is currently a focus of the CO2CRC activities

The CO2CRC Otway Project in southwestern Victoria is the Australian flagship for geological storage of CO2. Phase 1 of the project involved the injection of a CO2-rich supercritical fluid into a depleted natural gas field at a depth of ~2 km. The project reached a major milestone late last year with the cessation of injection and the emplacement of around 65,000 tonnes of the supercritical fluid. Phase 2 of the project is set to commence in early 2011 with the injection a few 100 tonnes of pure CO2 into a saline aquifer at ~1.5 km depth. Critical to the project was the drilling of the CRC-1 and CRC-2 wells, with both being used as injection wells. During drilling of each well, fluorescein dye was added to the drilling mud with the intention to maintain a concentration of 5 ppm w/v. The role of fluorescein was to 1) quantitated the degree of drilling fluid contamination that may accompany autochonthous formation waters recovered with the multiple dynamic testing (MDT) tool, and 2) provide a measure of the depth of drilling mud penetration into the recovered cores in order to provide pristine material for microbiological studies.

A question and answer style brochure on geological storage of carbon dioxide. Questions addressed include: - What is geological storage? - Why do we need to store carbon dioxide? - How can you store anything in solid rock? - Could the carbon dioxide contaminate the fresh water supply? - Could a hydrocarbon seal leak? - Are there any geological storage projects in Australia?

This is a 3 minute movie (with production music), to be played in the background during the October 28th 2010 Geoscience Australia Parlimentary Breakfast. The video shows a wide range of the types of activities that GA is involved in. These images include GA people doing GA activities as well as some of the results of offshore surveys; continental mapping; eath monitoring etc. The movie will be played as a background before and after GA's CEO (Chris Pigram) presentation.

Residual CO2 saturation (Sgr-CO2) is considered one of the most important trapping mechanisms for geological CO2 storage. Yet, standard procedures for the determination of Sgr-CO2 are missing and Sgr-CO2 has not been determined quantitatively at reservoir until recently. This circumstance introduces uncertainty in the prediction of the nature and capacity of CO2 storage and requires the development of well test procedures. The CO2CRC drilled a dedicated well with perforations in a low salinity aquifer of the Paaratte Formation between 1440 - 1447 m below the surface of the Otway Basin, Australia, with the aim to develop and compare five methods to determine Sgr-CO2 (see also Paterson et al, this volume).

Geoscience Australia undertook a marine survey of the Leveque Shelf (survey number SOL5754/GA0340), a sub-basin of the Browse Basin, in May 2013. This survey provides seabed and shallow geological information to support an assessment of the CO2 storage potential of the Browse sedimentary basin. The basin, located on the Northwest Shelf, Western Australia, was previously identified by the Carbon Storage Taskforce (2009) as potentially suitable for CO2 storage. The survey was undertaken under the Australian Government's National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to help identify sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 within reasonable distances of major sources of CO2 emissions. The principal aim of the Leveque Shelf marine survey was to look for evidence of any past or current gas or fluid seepage at the seabed, and to determine whether these features are related to structures (e.g. faults) in the Leveque Shelf area that may extend to the seabed. The survey also mapped seabed habitats and biota to provide information on communities and biophysical features that may be associated with seepage. This research, combined with deeper geological studies undertaken concurrently, addresses key questions on the potential for containment of CO2 in the basin's proposed CO2 storage unit, i.e. the basal sedimentary section (Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous), and the regional integrity of the Jamieson Formation (the seal unit overlying the main reservoir).

The Petrel Sub-basin Marine Survey GA-0335 (SOL5463) was undertaken by the RV Solander during May 2012 as part of the Commonwealth Government's National Low Emission Coal Initiative (NLECI). The survey was a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and GA. The purpose was to acquire geophysical and biophysical data on shallow (less then 100m water depth) seabed environments within two targeted areas in the Petrel Sub-basin to support investigation for CO2 storage potential in these areas. This dataset contains identifications of animals collected from 21 Smith-McIntyre grabs deployed during GA-334. Biological specimens were collected from Smith-McIntyre grabs. Sediment was elutriated for ~ 5 minutes over a 500um sieve. Retained sediments and animals were then preserved in 70% ethanol for later laboratory sorting and identification (see 'lineage'). The dataset is current as of November 2012, but will be updated as taxonomic experts contribute. Stations are named XXGRYY where XX indicates the station number, GR indicates Smith-Mac grab, and YY indicates the sequence of grabs deployed (i.e. the YYth grab on the entire survey).

The Petrel Sub-basin Marine Environmental Survey GA-0335, (SOL5463) was undertaken using the RV Solander during May 2012 as part of the Commonwealth Government's National Low Emission Coal Initiative (NLECI). The survey was undertaken as a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and GA. The purpose was to acquire geophysical and biophysical data on shallow (less then 100m water depth) seabed environments within two targeted areas in the Petrel Sub-basin to support investigation for CO2 storage potential in these areas. This dataset comprise TOC, TN and carbon and nitrogen isotope data from surface sediments (0-2cm) in the Timor Sea.