water security, coal seam gas, australia
Post on 21-Apr-2017
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Nathan Littlewood Consultant Hydrogeologist
Water Security & Coal Seam Gas - An Australian Experience
www.blueops.software
Introduction
good! not so good!
carbonated methanated
• The challenge of sharing water resources
• Coal seam gas (CSG) as an Australian example
• Meeting the challenge
Farm supply bore in Queensland Rare, but a perception risk
Global Water
• There are already significant stresses
• Population growth and changing diets
• Threat and opportunity is location specific –
e.g. Australia is not ‘High Stress’ everywhere,
other countries may have a different suite of
water challenges
Global Water
• A 40% shortfall in water supply is forecast for 2030
• Groundwater has an important role to play
• Out of sight = out of mind. Groundwater needs
better promotion and understanding
Australia’s groundwater resources
• Australia has extensive groundwater resources, a
small population and lots of space
• Resources are comparatively well understood and
regulated
• Aquifers are often in the same areas as
unconventional gas prospects
• The Great Artesian Basin is an iconic example, 22%
of land mass, relatively isolated from surface
variability, stores 65,000,000 ML
Coal seam gas (CSG) production
• CSG requires a network of production wells
because the gas has not migrated to a localised
reservoir
• Groundwater pressure holds the gas in the coal
• Lowering the water pressure by pumping
allows the gas to flow to the production well
CSG in Queensland
Conceptual model of the Surat Basin (Source: UWIR, 2012)
• Queensland has the biggest CSG
projects in Australia
• The producing coals are
discontinuous and lie within a
complex array of stacked aquifers
• Lessons have been learnt from
overseas but there are potential
risks/impacts, which have to be
balanced with the significant
opportunities
CSG in Queensland
• There has been rapid growth, leading to nervous stakeholders
• In the Surat Basin approximately 5000 wells have been drilled in the last 6-7 years
• Nearly 20,000 production wells are approved for drilling in existing projects
• Careful establishment of baseline conditions and ongoing surveillance is needed
CSG production GW-fed agricultural land
Coal mine
Condamine River Alluvial Aquifer
This way to an extensive contaminant plume, currently under investigation
This way to a very high quality aquifer with available water allocations
Risks to water quantity • A key issue is the reduction in water levels
caused by the cumulative impacts of the
CSG projects
• Water supply bores may become dry
• Flow regimes may be irreversibly altered
Risks to water quality
• There is lots of storage at surface:
brine, fracking fluids, drilling
muds.
• Injected fluids may not be fully
contained
• Gas leaks at surface are a growing
problem (more bubbles since this
photo)
Each step has risks -but can be safe if well managed
Source: CSIRO
brine pond >1km
river
Opportunities for innovation and collaboration?
Source: USGS
• Large quantities of co-produced
groundwater need to be disposed of
• Currently this is treated to produce
drinking-quality water plus a brine waste
stream
• Re-injection of treated water is a
favoured management option - a broad
benefit to all stakeholders
• Perhaps some of this water could have a
more targeted destination
• No ‘beneficial use’ has yet been found for
the brine waste. Currently stored in
evaporation ponds
Making sense of the data
Geography
Hydrogeology & geochemistry
Yield potential
Stakeholder issues
Regulator zones
Alternatives sources & water trading
$
To assess risks, collation and
aggregation of multiple data
streams is required, but this
is a difficult task
Making sense of the data BlueOps: a groundwater surveillance, risk
assessment and valuation tool. Being
developed in Brisbane through collaboration
between hydrogeologists, GIS analysts,
software designers and ‘big data’ experts.
www.blueops.software
Risk screening and assessment
• The ‘App’ will operate in the
Water Security space
• Provides a high-level screen to
facilitate decision-making and
tiered assessments
• Can be tailored for specific
industries
www.blueops.software
Part of an evolving strategic toolkit
• Designed to support evolving governance landscape, growth plans, investment strategy
• A single interface that provides high-level risk screening to a non-specialist
• Output of surveillance analysis: Can produce periodic reports for those with a watching brief
on groundwater threats and opportunities; industry movements (e.g. CSG); relevant policy and
legislation developments; water allocation and pricing changes
• The developers would love your feedback please! (visit www.blueops.software)
www.blueops.software
Conclusions
• Water security is a prevailing business, geopolitical and social risk
• Groundwater is an important and under-utilised resource
• CSG is one of many competing users, with specific risks
• Australia has compelling opportunities where business and natural environments match
• Making sense of the large and disparate data set is crucial to informed decision-making
Questions?
Nathan Littlewood | petrocgroup@gmail.com | www.blueops.software | +61 (0)426 120 043
www.blueops.software
References | Bibliography
CSIRO (2013) Characterisation of regional fluxes of methane in the Surat Basin, Queensland – Phase 1: A Review and Analysis
of Literature on Methane Detection and Flux Determination
HSBC Global Research (2013). ‘Water: resilience in a thirsty world’
McKinsey 2030 Water Resources Group (2009). ‘Charting Our Water Future’
National Groundwater Association, USA
National Water Account 2014. http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/
Deloitte Access Economics (2013). ‘Economic Value of Groundwater in Australia’
Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4610.0
General Electric (GE)/World Resources Institute (WRI) (2016) Water-Energy Nexus: Business Risks and Rewards
The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition
Moss & Frodl, (2016) Harvard Business Review
JP Morgan (2008). ‘Watching Water – A guide to evaluating corporate risks in a thirsty world’
Ceres (2015) An Investor Handbook for Water Risk Integration
WRI Aqueduct Atlas. http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/aqueduct
UWIR (2012) https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/ogia/surat-underground-water-impact-report
www.blueops.software
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