Trusted environmental and geological information to support Australian energy resource development in a changing world
Sarlae R. B. McAlpine A * , Meredith L. Orr A , Darren Ferdinando A and Stephen Hostetler AA Geoscience Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
The APPEA Journal 62 S321-S326 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21140
Accepted: 15 March 2022 Published: 13 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).
Abstract
The Australian Government’s Trusted Environmental and Geological Information (TEGI) program is a scientific program led by Geoscience Australia. The program is part of the Government’s Strategic Basin Initiative under its Gas-fired Recovery agenda, implemented as a post-COVID19 response to stimulate the economy. This program will deliver regional geological and environmental assessments underpinned by transparent, trusted baseline geological and environmental data, commencing in the north Bowen and Galilee and the Cooper and Adavale Basins. This repository of information is to be used in support of bringing forward energy and mineral developments in basins identified by the Government as strategic. This paper discusses how coupling resource assessments with baseline information such as groundwater, geology, energy and mineral resources, surface water and protected environmental matters, can be used to support exploration and development decisions by industry, regulators and other stakeholders. For example, by establishing a regional baseline resource assessment, through prospectivity play mapping, environmental assessments can be prioritised to match resource prospectivity. In anticipating future development scenarios, potential impacts on environmental assets, including groundwater, can be assessed in advance and with key knowledge gaps identified for redress. This approach aims to optimise the regulatory pathway to resource development and increase regulatory efficiency as future development opportunities arise across the scope of petroleum, minerals, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen storage and production. An example of Geoscience Australia’s work on the Adavale Basin is presented in this paper describing the first steps in linking energy resources and environmental assessments in a changing world.
Keywords: Adavale Basin, carbon capture and storage, Cooper Basin, Galilee Basin, gas, groundwater, hydrogen, minerals, north Bowen Basin, resource assessments.
Dr Sarlae McAlpine is the Director of the Strategic Basins Section in the Advice, Investment Attraction and Analysis Branch in the Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division at Geoscience Australia. Sarlae has 10 years of experience leading and contributing to pre-competitive geoscience research programs within the Australian Government, and has significant international science engagement experience. Sarlae has held a number of roles at Geoscience Australia, including leading integration and prospectivity in the Mineral Systems Branch, as the inaugural Executive Officer to the CEO, and Director of Digital Earth Africa. Sarlae has a Bachelor of Science (Hons), and PhD in Igneous and Mantle Petrology from the Research School of Earth Sciences, the Australian National University. |
Dr Meredith L. Orr holds a BSc (Hons) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Melbourne. She gained 10 years of experience in multidisciplinary research and teaching at Monash University before joining Geoscience Australia. This experience in integrating scientific disciplines informed her contribution to the Australian Government’s Geological and Bioregional Assessments program. Meredith was an Energy Resources Geoscientist at Geoscience Australia and she is currently coordinating the delivery of integrated science in the Trusted Environmental and Geological Information program. |
Dr Darren Ferdinando gained his BSc (Hons) and PhD from the University of Western Australia. He initially worked for the GSWA before moving to explore the Perth Basin with Arc Energy. After a successful period with Arc, he then took up an offer he could not refuse, joining Murphy Oil’s newly opened Australia office and worked across the Browse, Bonaparte and Perth Basins, as well as New Zealand’s offshore basins, the Great Australian Bight and the Vulcan Sub-basin. After Murphy Oil circled the wagons, closed the Perth office and headed back to Houston, he started his own consultancy, Basin Science, which specialises in regional play mapping across Australian Basins. Darren recently joined Geoscience Australia as a Resource Assessment Specialist focusing on play mapping of conventional and unconventional resources over eastern Australian basins. He is a Fellow of PESA and a member of AAPG. |
Stephen Hostetler has a Master’s degree in Geoscience from the University of Wyoming and a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Geoscience from the Pennsylvania State University. He has over 30 years of experience as a hydrogeologist in both the private and public sectors. Professional expertise includes deep groundwater, hydrogeochemistry, surface water/groundwater interaction and groundwater hydrodynamics. He is currently working for Geoscience Australia as a Hydrogeologist within the Trusted Environmental and Geological Information program and is Communications Champion for the ACT Branch of the International Association of Hydrogeologists. |
References
Ferdinando DD, Harrison PV, Stanbrook DA (2019) Shooting for the stars: unravelling a Late Jurassic turbidite petroleum system – frontiers for the next generation of exploration. In ‘The Sedimentary Basins of Western Australia V: Proceedings of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia Symposium, Perth, WA, 2019’. (Eds M Keep, SJ Moss) p. 19. (Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia: Perth)Miyazaki S, Ozimic S (1987) Australian petroleum accumulations report 4: Adavale Basin, Queensland. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Canberra.
