The Australian South West Hub Project: Developing Confidence in Migration Assisted Trapping in a Saline Aquifer – Understanding Uncertainty Boundaries Through Scenarios that Stress the Models

Sharma, Sandeep; Gent, Dominique Van

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3366170

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…11 and 12) (e.g. Nilsen et al, 2015;Sharma and Van Gent, 2018;Singh et al, 2021;Ulfah et al, 2022). What is considered migration loss in petroleum is ultra-secure storage from the perspective of CO2 storage.…”

Section: Principles Of Co2 Storage and Relevance In Salt Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Duffy¹,

Hudec²,

Peel³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The fundamental properties of salt have long been exploited in the search for hydrocarbons, as they influence many of the hydrocarbon play elements. This industrial application has driven the pursuit of salt tectonic knowledge over the last century and led to major conceptual advances in the field. However, the current need, and social-political demand, to decarbonize suggests that the applicability of salt tectonic knowledge will expand to other aspects of the subsurface that are relevant to the energy transition. The pace of this change leaves the field of salt tectonics grappling with a fundamental question – what role does salt tectonics have as part of the energy transition? Here, we discuss the role salt tectonics can play in a number of key energy transition technologies, namely, energy storage as gas in salt caverns (e.g. hydrogen and compressed air), CO2 storage, and geothermal energy. For each of these technologies we explore: i) fundamental concepts and driving forces; ii) how and why the properties of salt are of importance; and iii) the key salt-related technical challenges, potential future research directions, and technical approaches needed for large-scale development. We highlight how salt basins offer vast potential for development throughout the energy transition including, but not limited to: i) the likely demand for thousands of new hydrogen storage caverns inside salt bodies by 2050; ii) a likely early focus for porous media CO2 storage sites in basins strongly influenced by salt tectonics; and iii) enhanced geothermal energy potential in and around salt bodies. Effective exploitation of these resources will require a deeper understanding of the internal composition, geometry, and evolution of salt structures and their surrounding sediments, and potentially the development of more predictive models of salt tectonic behaviour. Critically, we see the need to integrate learnings of salt tectonics gained in the academic, mining, solution mining, and oil and gas communities, and apply a fresh perspective to answer research questions of relevance to the energy transition. Developing this new understanding will help optimise design, reduce geotechnical risk, and improve efficiency for energy transition technologies, thus indicating a strong future demand for salt tectonic research.

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Section: Principles Of Co2 Storage and Relevance In Salt Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Duffy¹,

Hudec²,

Peel³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The detectability of the plume has been largely successful by casing-conveyed instrumentation, while wireline time lapse logging and ERT could not be adequately assessed due to limited access to or insufficient vertical resolution across the interval of interest during the test. The detectability of such a small amount compared to a commercial-scale injection (i.e., 800,000 t/year over 30 years has been deemed feasible for the SW Hub; [25]) is a promising achievement regarding the monitorability of potential leaks in the shallow subsurface before detection at the ground surface. However, the controlled release experiment was focussed on a relatively small area and an engineered location.…”

Section: Monitorability Of Shallow Gas Accumulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A (not so) shallow controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone

et al. 2021

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The CSIRO In-Situ Laboratory Project (ISL) is located in Western Australia and has two main objectives related to monitoring leaks from a CO2 storage complex by controlled-release experiments: 1) improving the monitorability of gaseous CO2 accumulations at intermediate depth, and 2) assessing the impact of faults on CO2 migration. A first test at the In-situ Lab has evaluated the ability to monitor and detect unwanted leakage of CO2 from a storage complex in a major fault zone. The ISL consists of three instrumented wells up to 400 m deep: 1) Harvey-2 used primarily for gaseous CO2 injection, 2) ISL OB-1, a fibreglass geophysical monitoring well with behind-casing instrumentation, and 3) a shallow (27 m) groundwater well for fluid sampling. A controlled-release test injected 38 tonnes of CO2 between 336-342 m depth in February 2019, and the gas was monitored by a wide range of downhole and surface monitoring technologies. CO2 reached the ISL OB-1 monitoring well (7 m away) after approximately 1.5 days and an injection volume of 5 tonnes. Evidence of arrival was determined by distributed temperature sensing and the CO2 plume was detected also by borehole seismic after injection of as little as 7 tonnes. Observations suggest that the fault zone did not alter the CO2 migration along bedding at the scale and depth of the experiment. No vertical CO2 migration was detected beyond the perforated injection interval; no notable changes were observed in groundwater quality or soil gas chemistry during and post injection.The early detection of significantly less than 38 tonnes of CO2 injected into the shallow subsurface demonstrates rapid and sensitive monitorability of potential leaks in the overburden of a commercial-scale storage project, prior to reaching shallow groundwater, soil zones or the atmosphere. The ISL is a unique and enduring research facility at which monitoring technologies will be further developed and tested for increasing public and regulator confidence in the ability to detect potential CO2 leakage at shallow to intermediate depth.

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“…The detectability of such a small amount compared to a commercial scale injection (i.e., 800,000 t/year over 30 years has been deemed feasible for the SW Hub; Sharma and Van Gent, 2019) is a promising achievement regarding the monitorability of potential leaks in the shallow subsurface before detection at the ground surface. However, the controlled release experiment was focussed on a relatively small area and an engineered location.…”

Section: Monitorability Of Shallow Gas Accumulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CSIRO In-Situ Laboratory Project (In-Situ Lab) is located at the eastern edge of the South West Hub CCS Flagship project (SW Hub) in Western Australia (Figure 1), which has been identified as a potential area for commercial-scale CO2 storage (Stalker et al, 2013). The storage concept of the SW Hub involves injection of CO2 into a more than 2000 m deep, 1000 m thick sandstone reservoir, the Wonnerup Member of the Lesueur Sandstone, where up to 800,000 t CO2/year over 30 years are predicted to be potentially contained, largely due to residual trapping and dissolution of CO2 in formation water (Sharma and Van Gent, 2019). Given the faulted nature of the storage complex and lack of a conventional seal, it is important to understand the CO2 migration along faults and the ability to identify and monitor potential leakage pathways for assurance purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone at the In-Situ Laboratory in Western Australia

Michael

Avijegon²,

Ricard

et al. 2020

International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

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A controlled-release test at the In-Situ Laboratory Project in Western Australia injected 38 tonnes of gaseous CO2 between 336-342 m depth in a fault zone, and the gas was monitored by a wide range of downhole and surface monitoring technologies. Injection of CO2 at this depth fills the gap between shallow release (<25 m) and storage (>600 m) field trials. The main objectives of the controlled-release test were to assess the monitorability of shallow CO2 accumulations, and to investigate the impacts of a fault zone on CO2 migration. CO2 arrival was detected by distributed temperature sensing at the monitoring well (7 m away) after approximately 1.5 days and an injection volume of 5 tonnes. The CO2 plume was detected also by borehole seismic and electric resistivity imaging. The detection of significantly less than 38 tonnes of CO2 in the shallow subsurface demonstrates rapid and sensitive monitorability of potential leaks in the overburden of a commercial-scale storage project, prior to reaching shallow groundwater, soil zones or the atmosphere.Observations suggest that the fault zone did not alter the CO2 migration along bedding at the scale and depth of the test. Contrary to model predictions, no vertical CO2 migration was detected beyond the perforated injection interval. CO2 and formation water escaped to the surface through the monitoring well at the end of the experiment due to unexpected damage to the well's fibreglass casing. The well was successfully remediated without impact to the environment and the site is ready for future experiments.

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The Australian South West Hub Project: Developing Confidence in Migration Assisted Trapping in a Saline Aquifer – Understanding Uncertainty Boundaries Through Scenarios that Stress the Models

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

A (not so) shallow controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone

A controlled CO2 release experiment in a fault zone at the In-Situ Laboratory in Western Australia

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