Reducing cost of CCUS associated with natural gas production by improving monitoring technologies
Mohammad Bagheri A C , Scott Ryan B , David Byers A and Matthias Raab AA CO2CRC Limited, 11–15 Argyle Place South, Carlton, Vic. 3053, Australia.
B Chevron Australia Pty Ltd, 250 St Georges Terrace, Perth, WA 6000, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: mohammad.bagheri@co2crc.com.au
The APPEA Journal 60(1) 1-9 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ19137
Submitted: 6 January 2020 Accepted: 4 March 2020 Published: 15 May 2020
Abstract
This paper examines how we can reduce the cost of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). The CO2CRC research and demonstration projects during the last 15 years and the upcoming Otway Stage 3 Project aim to reduce the cost of CCUS. The CO2CRC Otway Stage 3 Project will develop subsurface monitoring technologies which can significantly reduce the cost of the surveillance. The CCUS associated with natural gas processing carries the lowest cost compared to other industries because production of concentrated CO2 streams is already part of the gas production process. Transport and storage remain the highest cost components of CCUS for natural gas production. Ranges of storage and transportation costs based on different publicly available data are ~US$2–40/tCO2 and ~US$2–10/tCO2 respectively. Further, the US Department of Energy cost model identifies 40–60% of storage cost as relating to recurring monitoring. This is highly dependent on project specifications, regulatory requirements and geographical considerations. The application of Otway Stage 3 subsurface technologies show preliminary long-term monitoring cost savings estimates for a large Australian project of up to 75% compared to conventional surface seismic-based methodologies. Depending on total injection mass, this would equate to an estimated cost saving of up to AU$12/tonne of CO2 injected for such a project. Reduced monitoring costs could be applied to all CCUS projects but would be of most interest to gas projects because storage is likely to be the biggest contributor to overall CCUS cost.
Keywords: CCUS, CO2, cost reduction, DAS, SOV, surveillance, Otway Stage 3.
Mohammad Bagheri joined CO2CRC in late 2017 and is currently working as a Subsurface Manager. He is a Reservoir Engineer with 17 years of oil and gas experience in Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Mohammad holds a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. He started his career with NIOC in 2003 as a Field Engineer and subsequently worked for Statoil, Schlumberger, British Gas and Santos as both Production and Reservoir Engineers in different time periods between 2005 and 2017. Mohammad is recognised as a Chartered Professional Engineer with Engineers Australia. He is a member of the Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (RPEQ) and certified by SPE as a Petroleum Professional. Mohammad has been appointed as the Program Chair for the Victorian and Tasmanian chapter of SPE since 2018. |
Scott Ryan is a Reservoir Engineer with Chevron Australia, with over 20 years of professional experience. He has been active as an industry representative with CO2CRC since 2010. He has a Bachelor of Engineering (Petroleum) from the University of New South Wales. |
David Byers joined CO2CRC as Chief Executive Officer in July 2018. He has more than 30 years of experience across the oil, gas and mineral industries in Australia and internationally with appointments in chief executive and senior leadership roles in public, membership and commercial organisations. Some highlights include his appointment as interim Chief Executive of the Minerals Council of Australia before joining CO2CRC, his earlier role as Vice President Government Relations and Public Policy for BHP, four years as Chief Executive of the Australian Petroleum Producers and Explorer’s Association, three years as Chief Executive of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia and 17 years working in senior leadership roles for ExxonMobil in Australia, Singapore and the United States. In 2018, he was appointed a member of the Australian Statistics Advisory Council, the key advisory body to the Federal Assistant Treasurer and the Australian Bureau of Statistics on national statistical services. He was recently appointed Honorary (Senior Fellow), Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne and is a member of the Peter Cook Centre Advisory Council, Melbourne University. |
Dr Matthias Raab is an experienced manager with international credentials in successful, high profile and complex projects in industry and academia. He has 23 years of experience in commercial and R&D environments with major sector clients. At CO2CRC Ltd, Dr Raab manages large project portfolios with teams of up to 70 people and annual budgets of up to $20M. As Chief Operations Officer, Dr Raab has strategic and operational responsibility for CO2CRC’s research facilities, research programs and the delivery of major research and infrastructure projects. Dr Raab manages a group of Senior Program, Project and Operations Managers and provides leadership to CO2CRC’s strategic planning and implements new strategic initiatives. Dr Raab’s overall portfolio includes the $45 million research program in Carbon Capture and Geological Carbon Storage, the CO2CRC Otway Field Facility, the Stage 3 Expansion of the Otway Project and the $51.6 million infrastructure grant awarded to CO2CRC under the Education Investment Fund. In previous roles Dr Raab managed Australia’s largest 2D marine seismic survey in Bass Strait, led the Victorian CCS initiative exploring for industrial scale CO2 storage in the Gippsland Basin and was a Project Manager building and documenting the border between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen. |
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