The first stage of the ZeroGen CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) project was the sequestration in deep saline aquifers in the Northern Denison Trough near Emerald, approx. 220 km from plant. Nautec was involved in this stage and carried out an assessment on the geological formations for CO2 storage. The Drilling Program One (DP1) successfully tested, involving the drilling of two wells of depths between 1000 m & 2000 m in the Northern Denison Trough. The second stage involves the construction of a 400 megawatt CCS project in Queensland at a site yet to be determined. The estimated cost of the total project had been reported as being $4.3 billion.

The Client

The end client was Queensland government owned company, ZeroGen Pty Ltd.

The Scope

One of the key issues was to establish the proof of concept for the land-mark CO2 sequestration project. Following on this, Nautec was engaged and a multi-discipline, sub-surface study was carried out by the team members (including project leader) incorporating seismic interpretation and reservoir characterisation to support GHG Tenement Application in Queensland (Southern Bowen and Surat Basins). The study was performed to identify the likely suitable reservoir and the feasibility analysis of the CO2 storage capacities.

  • Storage reservoir identification
  • Well location planning
  • Operations geology
  • Field development planning
  • Designed sub-surface appraisal programme
  • Sub-surface and core evaluation studies

Project Aims

  • Prepare data for development of a static geological model. This will include:
    • Using regional maps at top reservoir and seal;
    • Wireline log analysis to characterise reservoir sand seal pairs;
    • Prepare poro-perm transforms using Petrophysics.
  • Build a static model.
  • Run dynamic model for:
    • Run simulation for footprint, rate and pressure analyses of CO2 movement;
    • Undertake probabilistic monte-carlo simulations, to evaluate storage capacities and single well injection rates.

Outcome

  • Feasibility appraisal work ongoing
  • Confirmation of feasibility likely to lead to extensive involvement in development programme
  • ZeroGen is one of the world-leading projects in CCS
  • Nautec recognised as world-leader in CCS