Hosted with thanks to our Gold Sponsors DUG,  Katalyst Data Management and PetroDip

PESA WA invites you to our technical luncheon on Thursday 21st October

“Mercury in reservoir rock and geofluids”

Julien Bourdet*¹, Charles Heath¹, Matthew Josh¹, Louise Schoneveld², Andrew Ross¹

¹CSIRO Energy, ARRC, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, WA 6151, Australia

²CSIRO Mineral Resources, ARRC, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, WA 6151, Australia

Abstract

Production and economic recovery of gas for LNG are affected by the association of chemical compounds naturally present at low to trace levels within natural gas such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and mercury. These contaminants generate a cascade of costly treatments and waste recovery efforts. If the level of mercury in a produced gas stream is higher than expected, the treatment process in the LNG plant rapidly reaches capacity and may cause shut down of the facility or rejection of gas supply resulting in significant profitability impacts. There may also be long term consequences that could impact on the decommissioning of industrial infrastructures in the future.

High mercury levels in produced gas have been reported in South East Asia and Australia. However, currently there are no standard method to accurately quantify the presence of mercury in gas in the reservoir. The highly absorbent and multi-speciated nature of mercury makes reliable gas sampling difficult and may lead to gross under-predictions of quantity. The spatial distribution of mercury within the reservoir means mercury may not appear in the initial production phase and its presence in fluids may vary over the lifetime of the field.

Understanding the source, the transport mechanism, and the distribution of naturally present contaminants in the subsurface is critical for lowering their impact in industrial activity through avoidance. High mercury levels above 1000 microgram per cubic meter (µg/Sm³) have been reported in reservoir gas samples from the Gorgon gas field. We investigated core samples to detect and understand the distribution of mercury in the North Gorgon-1 well. The investigation combined petrography, mineral mapping, XRF imaging, whole-rock geochemistry, laser ablation, in-situ sulphur stable isotope and bulk elemental mercury extraction.

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 Monday  at 5pm (AWST). All ticket sales close at 5pm Tuesday.

Refund Policy: Refunds are only applicable if notified in writing to WA-secretary@pesa.com.au prior to the close of ticket sales. Refunds will be issued to all participants in the case that government regulations prevent the event taking place.

As I know some people have concerns about the venue, I have attached a letter from the Pan Pacific as the event flyer below. This documents how Pan Pacific are ensuring the safety of all visitors and preventing the spread of COVID -19.