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