Authors: David Barlass* & Ruth Hamilton (SLB), Sabine Mehay & Adeline Parent (SLB Oilfield UK plc), Ivan Pei (SLB), Oliver Schenk (SLB Oilfield UK plc), Merrie-Ellen Gunning (Geoscience Australia), Adam Vonk (Chevron Australia)

Safe geological carbon dioxide storage (GCS) requires rocks with suitable injectivity, capacity and sealing properties to ensure secure long-term containment of injected CO2.  A regional understanding of the subsurface is essential to determine the potential for GCS of a basin and to select target sites. This is best addressed by integrating the basin’s tectono-stratigraphic evolution, its gross depositional environment, and its hydrodynamic, thermal and stress regimes.

A basin-scale GCS assessment for the Barrow-Dampier sub-basins was conducted by Geoscience Australia and SLB. The objective of the study is to high-grade geological intervals and sites for potential GCS and to understand potential storage capacity and key risk factors. Stratigraphic and structural mapping of key storage intervals was performed using the reprocessed seismic volume and well database associated with the project. Analysis of critically stressed faults was used to estimate the likelihood of reactivation based on the far-field regional stress field and fault mechanical properties. Pressure, temperature, porosity, permeability, and water geochemistry data has been screened for >500 wells for assessing the storage unit intervals and predicting the hydrodynamic regime. Calibrated 2D basin models provide information on the regional pressure-temperature regime, porosity/permeability distribution, and sealing effectiveness. Potentiometric surface maps for the aquifer systems inform the distribution of CO2 plume migration. Results of this integrated regional basin study are used to quantify the risk of identified storage containers and to map the chance of success for GCS at a regional scale. The project results are to be made publicly available in Mar 2024.

Ticket Prices:

Member (Early Bird): $69.00

Concession Member [Retired, Graduate or Hardship] (Early Bird): $59.00

Student Member (Early Bird): $39.00

Non-Member: $99.00

Member (Non-Early Bird): $79.00

Early bird pricing ends Thursday (1 week prior) at 5pm (AWST). All ticket sales close at 5pm Tuesday (2 days prior).