2023 PESA WEBINAR SERIES: CCS Knowledge Transfer Series: Installment 1

The goal for carbon dioxide storage site selection and characterisation is to find a suitable location where an effective reservoir exists, matched to a CO2 source in both volume and injection rate. To ensure the CO2 is safely contained, the relative contribution of key trapping mechanisms need to be defined, thus reducing adverse risks to natural resources or the community. In Australia, the framework for offshore CO2 storage has been adapted from petroleum legislation. The tools, processes, and methodologies also mirror those developed in the search for oil and gas, and one might think it’s simpler since factors like establishing there has been sufficient charge can be bypassed. Indeed, to avert conflicts over resources, locations where hydrocarbons are less likely to be found are preferred. However, this preference leads to a quandary: how do we ascertain storage potential in areas lacking prior exploration data? Given this situation, many assume that depleted fields are attractive options, with minimal risk and uncertainty due to their history of retaining hydrocarbons and the extensive characterization by prior operators. But these sites bring their own unique set of challenges. In this first talk of the series we will introduce screening criteria required to find prospective CCS sites and some Australian examples where we show “what’s different about CCS”?

Speaker Biography

Dr Tess Dance has a PhD from the University of Adelaide in Petroleum Geoscience, and over twenty years of experience in basin analysis and reservoir characterisation for geological storage of Carbon Dioxide. Dr Dance is the author of numerous high impact publications in the field of CO2 geological storage, monitoring and verification, and has specialised knowledge of sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and geological depositional environmental analysis. In her role as geo-modeller for the CO2CRC Otway Project, she has been involved in well planning, core logging, data analysis, seismic interpretation, modelling, and simulation for Australia’s first CCS demonstration pilot site. She currently leads the Reservoir Simulation team in CSIRO Energy Resources.