Current Projects

Geological storage: identifying Australia’s hydrocarbon and CO₂ storage potential in Residual Oil Zones (ROZ)

Residual oil zones are water-dominated parts of reservoirs that have a certain (residual) oil saturation that traditionally has not been economic to produce. These zones are found under the oil-water contact beneath oil fields (“brownfields”) and can also occur in parts of the reservoir that are not associated with oil accumulations (“greenfields”). Over the past few years, there has been demonstrated success in producing oil from ROZs through CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR) in the Permian Basin of the USA. Through our project, we aim to identify and assess residual oil zones in Australia’s oil-producing basins in order to determine their potential oil and CO₂ storage resources for Australia. This project is part of the second phase of the Exploring For The Future Program (2020–2024).

Publications

Tenthorey, E., Taggart, I., Kalinowski, A., McKenna, J. 2021. CO2-EOR+ in Australia: Achieving low-emissions oil and unlocking residual oil resources. The APPEA Journal 61(1), 118-131.

Tenthorey, E., Kalinowski, A., Wintle, E., Easton, L., Mathews, E., Mckenna, J., Taggart, I. 2020. Screening Australia’s Basins for CO₂-Enhanced Oil Recovery. CO2CRC Report.

Otway Fault Experiment

We are working with CO2CRC to assess the feasibility of conducting a small shallow CO₂ fault injection experiment at the CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre in Victoria. The proposed experiment would release a small amount of CO₂ (e.g. 10 tonnes) approximately 80 metres underground next to a shallow fault under highly controlled conditions and image the underground CO₂ migration behaviour. The CO2CRC Otway site offers the opportunity to conduct the experiment at a well characterised strike-slip fault. Vertical leakage up strike-slip faults is poorly understood and it is difficult to predict gas migration within this type of fault geometry. The experience gained from this experiment would help improve our understanding of CO₂ migration, i.e. possible CO₂ release into shallow aquifers from a leaky well, and the improving predictions of fluid flow in faulted near surface environments.

Phase I and II of this project have been completed and focused on designing the experiment, acquiring geological and baseline environmental data, testing monitoring tools and models, and characterising the Port Campbell Limestone and Brumbys Fault, which form the injection target. Key publications from these first two phases are listed below. We are currently in the planning stages for Phase 3 of the project, which will include injection and monitoring of CO₂.

Publications

Feitz, A., Radke, B., Ricard, L., Chan, K., Glubokovskikh, S., Tenthorey, E., Pevzner, R., Tertyshnikov, K., Urosevic, M., Lebedev, M., Ennis-King, J., Schacht, U., Vialle, S., Harris, B., Wang, L., Coene, E., Green, C., Kalinowski, A., Sidenko, E., Ziramov, S., Schaa, R., Teo, B., Pethick, A., Costall, A., Takemura, T., Dewhurst, D., Lavin, M., Elebrac, E., Idiart, A., Silv, O., Grandia, F., Sainz-Garcia, A., Jordana, S., Credoz, A. 2021. The CO2CRC Otway Shallow CO₂ Controlled Release Experiment: Fault Characterization and Leakage Scenarios, Proceedings of the 15th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference 15-18 March 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817287

Feitz, A., Tertyshnikov, K., Pevzner, R., Ricard, L., Harris, B., Schaa, R., Schacht, U., Kalinowski, A., Vialle, S., Glubokovskikh, S., Lebedev, M., Tenthorey, E., Pan, Z., Ennis-King, J., Wang, L., Hossein, S., Ransley, T., Radke, B., Urosevic, M., Singh, R. 2018. The CO2CRC shallow CO2 controlled release experiment: preparation for Phase 2. Energy Procedia, 154, 145-150.

Feitz, A.J., Pevzner, R., Harris, B., Schaa, R., Tertyshnikov, K., Ziramov, S., Gunning, M., Ransley, T.R., Lai, E., Bailey, A.H., Schacht, U., Fomin, T. and Urosevic, M. 2017. The CO2CRC Otway shallow CO2 controlled release experiment: Site suitability assessment, Energy Procedia, 114, pp. 3671-3678.

CCS hydrogen

Part of our work focuses on the clean production of hydrogen in Australia. Hydrogen can be produced through electrolysis driven by renewable energy sources (renewable or green hydrogen) or as a thermochemical reaction of coal or gas and water, with the resulting CO₂ emissions captured and stored underground (CCS or blue hydrogen). Read more about our work on hydrogen.

Publications

Feitz, A., Tenthorey, E., Coghlan, R. 2019. Prospective hydrogen production regions of Australia. Geoscience Australia Record 2019/15, 64 pp. eCAT #130930.

• AusH2 portal

Technical advice to government

We provide technical advice to government, particularly through the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, on issues related to CCUS and low carbon energy technologies. We have assisted with the development of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006, CO₂ storage regulations, and release of offshore acreage for CO₂ storage. We often act as the Government’s technical representatives and advisers at domestic and international fora such as the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum and IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme.