The CO2CRC Otway Project: Leveraging experience and exploiting new opportunities at Australia’s first CCS project site

Abstract

The Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) is undertaking Australia’s first geosequestration research and demonstration project in the onshore Otway Basin, south-eastern Australia, in order to demonstrate transport and geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), test scientific and regulatory concepts relating to CO2 storage and evaluate public response through stakeholder engagement. Stage one of the CO2CRC Otway Project (the Project) has successfully injected over 65,000 tonnes of CO2-rich gas (80% carbon dioxide; 20% methane) into a depleted natural gas reservoir. An exhaustive data set of pre- and post-injection monitoring information has been collected across the atmospheric, near-surface and sub-surface domains. These monitoring results have been largely consistent with the modelling predictions thereby adding confidence to both the approach and validity of the sub-surface realisations. Public confidence has benefited from this and allowed the CO2CRC to look at exploiting new opportunities at the Otway Project site that serve to optimise the existing infrastructure. Otway Stage two is based on injection into a heterogeneous formation with no apparent structural closure with the principal objective of understanding trapping mechanisms in deep saline formations. A research program has been developed adapting the “Huff and Puff” technique to better understand the key parameters impacting residual trapping. The key challenges faced by the Project have been both technical and legislative. These have included getting the original project approved in the absence of legislation dedicated to carbon storage and managing the transition of these multi-jurisdictional legislative approvals to the new carbon storage legislation passed by the Victorian State Government in 2008. The Otway Project has provided the Victorian Government with a valuable practical case study from which to draw learnings for developing policy and regulatory frameworks for carbon capture and storage (CCS). As the Victorian Government brought Australia’s first standalone carbon storage legislation (based on petroleum legislation) into operation in December 2009, some unique insights have been identified through the Otway Project. These include an understanding of stakeholder perception through the Project’s community engagement activities and more recently, on how an existing research and demonstration project could be bridged to a newly introduced legislative regime. Other jurisdictions with CCS projects are likely to find these projectbased learnings of great value, particularly, in developing regulatory frameworks and a risk communication strategy. The Otway Project is currently Australia’s only active storage project and in addition to performing important storage research, is a key driver for enhancing community confidence towards CCS. These are all critical considerations for accelerating commercial deployment of CCS and the Project is playing an important part in turning research into reality. We summarise Stage one of the project, capture the knowledge gained and describe the approach taken in Stage two to utilise the sub-surface and infrastructure available to address key research questions while continuing to build public confidence for CCS as a mitigation mechanism.