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Concurrent 9. Oral Presentation for: Assessment of CO2 storage capability in Denison Trough, Bowen Basin

Xingjin Wang A *
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A Denison Gas Ltd, Chatswood, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

* Correspondence to: xwang@denisongas.com.au

The APPEA Journal 63 - https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22331
Published: 2 June 2023

Abstract

Presented on Tuesday 16 May: Session 9

The Bowen–Surat basin in eastern Queensland is a major centre of fossil energy production in Australia, producing 50% of Australia’s coal and 26% of Australia’s gas. Consequently, this region is also a major centre of carbon emissions. In 2018, fugitive emissions from the coal, oil and gas sectors were approximately 19.1 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, which accounts for 11% of Queensland’s total emissions. The Denison Trough, (central Queensland) is the western depocentre of the Bowen Basin, an area of major natural gas supply for eastern Australia. Since the 1960s, 14 gas fields have been discovered and brought onto production. Denison Gas holds 10 petroleum leases across these discoveries, with a total acreage of 1159 km2. There are over 60 production wells, of which over 20 are depleted or close to depleted, and they provide potential target sites for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Preliminary analysis shows the depleted reservoir in the Aldebaran Sandstone at the Merivale Field (southern Denison Trough) could be the first candidate for CCS. The subsurface depth of the reservoir is 850–1200 m and could retain CO2 in the supercritical phase. The permeability varies from 1 to 2000 mD. As the reservoir pressure has been depleted, it is expected the injection operation at the depleted wells will be achievable. A simulation for estimating storage capacity was performed by Denison Gas. The results show the depleted gas reservoir has the capacity of storing up to 70 BCF (3600 kt) of CO2 in the future. This result encourages further work to determine seal integrity and economic feasibility.

To access the Oral Presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

Keywords: Denison Trough, depleted gas reservoir, history match, injection rate, Merivale Field, permeability, simulation, storage capacity.

Dr Xingjin Wang holds a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of New South Wales and has over 30 years’ international experience in gas exploration and production applications as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration both in China and Australia. He specialises in reservoir simulation, well test analysis, production performance analysis and reservoir characterisation. He is currently a founder and executive director of Denison Gas Ltd. Xingjin was the General Manager of Arrow Energy between 2007 and 2010. As a technical advisor to Gazprom, he was involved in a coal seam gas (CSG) pilot project in Siberia, Russia, between 2011 to 2014. Xingjin is an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland (UQ). He is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.