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  • 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.

  • This GHGT-12 conference paper hightlights some results of GA's work on "Regional assessment of the CO2 storage potential of the Mesozoic sucession in the Petrel Sub-basin, Northern Territory, Australia. Record 2014/11".

  • 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 %.

  • The first large scale projects for geological storage of carbon dioxide on the Australian mainland are likely to occur within sedimentary sequences that underlie or are within the Triassic Cretaceous Great Artesian Basin aquifer sequence. Recent national and state assessments have concluded that certain deep formations within the Great Artesian Basin show considerable geological suitability for the storage of greenhouse gases. These same formations contain trapped methane and naturally generated carbon dioxide stored for millions of years. In July 2010, the Queensland Government released exploration permits for Greenhouse Gas Storage in the Surat and Galilee basins. An important consideration in assessing the potential economic, environmental, health and safety risks of such projects is the potential impact carbon dioxide migrating out of storage reservoirs could have on overlying groundwater resources. The risk and impact of carbon dioxide migrating from a greenhouse gas storage reservoir into groundwater cannot be objectively assessed without an adequate knowledge of the natural baseline characteristics of the groundwater within these systems. Due to the phase behaviour of carbon dioxide, geological storage of carbon dioxide in the supercritical state requires depths greater than 800m, but there are few hydrogeochemical studies of these deeper aquifers in the prospective storage areas. Historical hydrogeochemical data were compiled from various State and Federal Government agencies. In addition, hydrogeochemical information has been compiled from thousands of petroleum well completion reports in order to obtain more information on the deeper aquifers, not typically used for agriculture or human consumption. The data were passed through a quality checking procedure to check for mud contamination and ascertain whether a representative sample had been collected. The large majority of the samples proved to be contaminated but a small selection passed the quality checking criteria.

  • Phase two of the China Australia Geological Storage of CO2 (CAGS2) project aimed to build on the success of the previous CAGS project and promote capacity building, training opportunities and share expertise on the geological storage of CO2. The project was led by Geoscience Australia (GA) and China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) through the Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21 (ACCA21). CAGS2 has successfully completed all planned activities including three workshops, two carbon capture and storage (CCS) training schools, five research projects focusing on different aspects of the geological storage of CO2, and ten researcher exchanges to China and Australia. The project received favourable feedback from project partners and participants in CAGS activities and there is a strong desire from the Chinese government and Chinese researchers to continue the collaboration. The project can be considered a highly successful demonstration of bi-lateral cooperation between the Australian and Chinese governments. Through the technical workshops, training schools, exchange programs, and research projects, CAGS2 has facilitated and supported on-going collaboration between many research institutions and industry in Australia and China. More than 150 experts, young researchers and college students, from over 30 organisations, participated in CAGS2. The opportunity to interact with Australian and international experts at CAGS hosted workshops and schools was appreciated by the participants, many of whom do not get the opportunity to attend international conferences. Feedback from a CAGS impact survey found that the workshops and schools inspired many researchers and students to pursue geological storage research. The scientific exchanges proved effective and often fostered further engagement between Chinese and Australian researchers and their host organisations. The research projects often acted as a catalyst for attracting additional CCS funding (at least A$700,000), including two projects funded under the China Clean Development Mechanism Fund. CAGS sponsored research led to reports, international conference presentations, and Chinese and international journal papers. CAGS has established a network of key CCS/CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and storage) researchers in China and Australia. This is exemplified by the fact that 4 of the 6 experts that provided input on the 'storage section of the 12th Five-Year plan for Scientific and Technological Development of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage, which laid out the technical policy priorities for R&D and demonstration of CCUS technology in China, were CAGS affiliated researchers. The contributions of CAGS to China's capacity building and policy CCUS has been acknowledged by the Chinese Government. CAGS support of young Chinese researchers is particularly noted and well regarded. Letters have been sent to the Secretary of the Department of Industry and Science and to the Deputy CEO of Geoscience Australia, expressing China's gratitude for the Australian Government's support and GA's cooperation in the CAGS project.

  • Sampling, prior to CO2 injection at the CO2CRC Otway Project, southeastern Victoria at the end of 2007 early 2008, provided a stocktake of the molecular and isotopic (carbon and hydrogen) compositions of the subsurface hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases (and heavier hydrocarbons) at, and in close proximity to, the injection site. This baseline study is also fundamental to the assessment of present sub-surface petroleum components as natural tracers for injected gases arriving at the monitoring well. The CO2CRC Otway Project will use the CO2-rich natural gas (containing 79% CO2 and 20% methane) from the Buttress-1 well; totalling 100,000 tons of gas injected over 2 years. This gas mixture will be injected supercritically into sandstones of the CRC-1 well below the original gas-water contact at ~2000 m in the Waarre Formation. The depleted natural gas well at Naylor-1 is the monitoring well, situated 300 m updip of the injection well. Gas from the Waarre Formation in Naylor-1 observation well contains <1% CO2, which is isotopically depleted in 13C (13C -15.8) by 9 compared to CO2 (13C -6.8) in Buttress-1. Thus the carbon isotopes of CO2 can act as a primary natural tracer for monitoring purposes. Isotopically, the minimum detection limit would result from an increase of ~20 % in the CO2 concentration at Naylor-1 from the Buttress-derived CO2. On the other hand, the carbon and hydrogen isotopes of methane, wet gases and higher hydrocarbons are very similar between Buttress-1, CRC-1 and Naylor-1, requiring addition of external conservative tracers (Boreham et al., 2007) for the monitoring of hydrocarbon components. Although the content of liquid hydrocarbons in the gases is very low (<1%), there is the potential for supercritical CO2 extraction of these high molecular weight components (e.g. black oil in the Caroline-1 CO2 gas field and solid wax at the Boggy Creek CO2 production plant) that can be either advantageous (lubrication) or detrimental (clogging) to monitoring equipment at Naylor-1. The CRC-1 well provided an opportunity to collect downhole mud gases over many formations. Maximum total hydrocarbon concentration of 0.97 % occurred in the Waarre Formation Unit C. Surprisingly, a free gas zone in the overlying Flaxmans Formation had a lower maximum concentration (0.17 %). Carbon isotopes for the hydrocarbon gases from 1907 to 2249 mRT showed little downhole variation, while the 13C CO2 averaged -16, identical to CO2 at Naylor-1. Interestingly, the condensate recovered from a MDT in the Flaxmans Formation showed depletions in 13C for the C11 to C20 n-alkanes of up to 6 for n-C15 compared to n-alkanes of oils and condensates sourced from the Eumeralla Formation of the eastern Otway Basin (Boreham et al., 2004). Water washing is suspected at CRC-1 but is not expected to be a major factor affecting hydrocarbon compositions in the short term. The results of this subsurface petroleum audit have been pivotal in demonstrating the need for the addition of external tracers, especially for the hydrocarbon components, and provide an integral part of the near-surface, soil gas and atmospheric monitoring activities of the CO2CRC Otway Project. References Boreham, C.J., Hope, J.M., Jackson, P., Davenport, R., Earl, K.L., Edwards, D.S., Logan, G.A., Krassay, A.A., 2004. Gas-oil-source correlations in the Otway Basin, southern Australia. In: Boult, P.J., Johns, D.R., Lang, S.C. (Eds.), Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium II, Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Special Publication, pp. 603-627. Boreham, C.J., Underschultz, J., Stalker, L., Freifeld, B., Volk, H., Perkins, E., 2007. Perdeuterated methane as a novel tracer in CO2 geosequestration. In: Farrimond, P. et al. (Eds.), The 23rd International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry, Torquay, England 9th-14th September 2007, Book of Abstracts, 713-714.

  • The middle to lower Jurassic sequence in Australia's Surat Basin has been identified as a potential reservoir system for geological CO2 storage. The sequence comprises three major formations with distinctly different mineral compositions, and generally low salinity formation water (TDS<3000 mg/L). Differing geochemical responses between the formations are expected during geological CO2 storage. However, given the prevailing use of saline reservoirs in CCS projects elsewhere, limited data are available on CO2-water-rock dynamics during CO2 storage in such low-salinity formations. Here, a combined batch experiment and numerical modelling approach is used to characterise reaction pathways and to identify geochemical tracers of CO2 migration in the low-salinity Jurassic sandstone units. Reservoir system mineralogy was characterized for 66 core samples from stratigraphic well GSQ Chinchilla 4, and six representative samples were reacted with synthetic formation water and high-purity CO2 for up to 27 days at a range of pressures. Low formation water salinity, temperature, and mineralization yield high solubility trapping capacity (1.18 mol/L at 45°C, 100 bar), while the paucity of divalent cations in groundwater and the silicate reservoir matrix results in very low mineral trapping capacity under storage conditions. Formation water alkalinity buffers pH at elevated CO2 pressures and exerts control on mineral dissolution rates. Non-radiogenic, regional groundwater-like 87Sr/86Sr values (0.7048-0.7066) indicate carbonate and authigenic clay dissolution as the primary reaction pathways regulating solution composition, with limited dissolution of the clastic matrix during the incubations. Several geochemical tracers are mobilised in concentrations greater than found in regional groundwater, most notably cobalt, concentrations of which are significantly elevated regardless of CO2 pressure or sample mineralogy.

  • 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

  • Geoscience Australia and the CO2CRC have constructed a greenhouse gas controlled release facility at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry at Ginninderra, Canberra. The facility is designed to simulate surface emissions of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) from the soil into the atmosphere. CO2 is injected into the soil is via a 120m long slotted HDPE pipe installed horizontally 2m underground. This is fitted with a straddle packer system to partition the well into six CO2 injection chambers with each chamber connected to its own CO2 injection line. CO2 was injected into 5 of the chambers during the first sub-surface release experiment (March - May 2012) and the total daily injection rate was 100 kg/d. A krypton tracer was injected into one of the 5 chambers at a rate of 10 mL/min. Monitoring methods trialled at the site include eddy covariance, atmospheric tomography using a wireless networked array of solar powered CO2 stations, soil flux, soil gas, frequency-domain electromagnetics (FDEM), soil community DNA analysis, and krypton tracer studies (soil gas and air). A summary of the findings will be presented. Paper presented at the 2012 CO2CRC Research Symposium, Sunshine Beach, 27-29 November 2012.