WATER AND THE COAL SEAM GAS INDUSTRY

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 369
Author(s):  
G. Scott ◽  
C. Ammundsen
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
End User ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Coal Seams ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Access To Water

Access to water is a significant issue in Queensland as much of the State continues to be affected by a prolonged drought. Coal seam gas production involves extracting water from coal seams to reduce the groundwater pressure that keeps the methane trapped in the coal. This process produces large volumes of water. Local councils, primary producers and industrial developers are potential end users of this water; however, if the water is of poor quality, it may be unsuitable for release in the environment and for other direct beneficial uses.This paper examines the complex legislative and regulatory hurdles that need to be overcome before any mutually beneficial agreement between the coal seam gas producer and end user may be completed. It also examines an operational policy recently released by the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency that proposes a framework for the regulation and management of water extracted from coal seams.

Beneficial use of associated water in the Queensland coal seam gas industry

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 686
Author(s):  
Cristian Purtill
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Coal Seam ◽  
Single Mode ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Beneficial Use ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Water Management Strategy

The Queensland Government has developed an associated water management policy that, among other things, strives to maximise the beneficial use of associated water derived from Queensland’s burgeoning coal seam gas industry. The Department of Infrastructure and Planning reports that domestic gas production alone (i.e. without an export LNG market) will produce on average 25 GL per annum in the next 25 years. Most of this water has sufficiently high total dissolved solids and other water quality issues to require some form of treatment prior to use. Clearly, the relatively large volumes of water present both challenges and opportunities to the communities in which the CSG industry is developing. In line with the philosophy of beneficial use of associated water, Santos has developed a portfolio of options within its associated water management strategy and plans for its Arcadia Valley, Fairview and Roma tenements. The strategy seeks to: provide enduring value for the community; maximise benefits while minimising the environmental footprint; provide a range of alternatives to avoid single-mode failure; use scalable options in response to uncertainty; deploy demonstrated technologies; and, meet and exceed all regulatory requirements. This paper will set some context around the broader CSG industry’s associated water challenges, and identify what parameters must be considered in arriving at beneficial uses for the water. The paper then explores some of Santos’ approaches to associated water management.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COAL SEAM GAS IN EASTERN QUEENSLAND

2006 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 329 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.L. Baker ◽  
W.R. Skerman
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Coal Seam ◽  
Commercial Production ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Coal Seams ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Company Limited ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
Gas Supply

The commercial production of coal seam gas [CSG] in Australia is only a decade old. Over the last 10 years it has become a significant part of the Australian gas industry, particularly in Queensland where about 31 PJ or 30% of all natural gas used in the State was recovered from coal seams in eastern Queensland. In 2005 CSG was expected to have supplied 55 PJ or 44 % of the eastern Queensland gas demand. The mining, mineral processing and power generations in northwest Queensland, serviced by the Carpentaria Gas Pipeline, will continue to use gas from the Cooper-Eromanga Basin.The CSG industry is reaching a stage of maturity following the commissioning of a number of fields while some significant new projects are either in the commissioning phase or under development. By the end of 2008 CSG production in Queensland is expected to reach 150 PJ per year, the quantity needed to meet Gas Supply Agreements for CSG that are presently in place.Certified Proved and Probable (2P) gas reserves at 30 June 2005 in eastern Queensland were calculated to be 4,579 PJ, of which 4,283 PJ were CSG. Gas reserves (2P) for eastern Queensland a decade earlier were less than 100 PJ with those for CSG being less than 5 PJ.The coal seam gas industry in both the Bowen and Surat basins—which includes major gas producers such as Origin Energy Limited and Santos Limited along with smaller producers such as Arrow Energy NL, CH4 Gas Limited, Molopo Australia Limited and Queensland Gas Company Limited—is now accepted by major gas users as being suppliers of another reliable source of natural gas.

Impact of in-seam drilling performance on coal seam gas production and remaining gas distribution

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 328
Author(s):  
Fengde Zhou ◽  
Glen Fernandes ◽  
Joao Luft ◽  
Kai Ma ◽  
Mahmoud Oraby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Gas Content ◽  
Gas Distribution ◽  
Coal Seams ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Saturation ◽  
Drilling Performance ◽  
Permeability Anisotropy ◽  
The Impact

Drilling horizontal wells in low permeability coal seams is a key technology to increase the drainage area of a well, and hence, decrease costs. It’s unavoidable that some parts of the horizontal section will be drilled outside the targeted coal seam due to unforeseen subsurface conditions, such as sub-seismic faulting, seam rolls, basic geosteering tools, drilling practices and limited experiences. Therefore, understanding the impact of horizontal in-seam drilling performance on coal seam gas (CSG) production and remaining gas distribution is an important consideration in drilling and field development plans. This study presents a new workflow to investigate the impact of horizontal in-seam performance on CSG production and gas distribution for coal seams with different porosity, permeability, permeability anisotropy, initial gas content (GC), initial gas saturation and the ratio of in-coal length to in-seam length (RIIL). First, a box model with an area of 2 km × 0.3 km × 6 m was used for conceptual simulations. Reduction indexes of the cumulative gas production at the end of 10 years of simulations were compared. Then, a current Chevron well consisting of a vertical well and two lateral wells, was selected as a case study in which the impact of outside coal drilling on history matching and remaining gas distribution were analysed. Results show that the RIIL plays an increasing role for cases with decreasing permeability or initial gas saturation, while it plays a very similar role for cases with varied porosity, permeability anisotropy and GC. The size and location of outside coal drilling will affect the CSG production and remaining gas distribution.

scholarly journals Coal seam gas industry methane emissions in the Surat Basin, Australia: comparing airborne measurements with inventories

2021 ◽  
Vol 379 (2210) ◽  
pp. 20200458
Author(s):  
Bruno G. Neininger ◽  
Bryce F. J. Kelly ◽  
Jorg M. Hacker ◽  
Xinyi LU ◽  
Stefan Schwietzke
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Airborne Measurements ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Wet Gas ◽  
Airborne Measurement ◽  
The Usa

Coal seam gas (CSG) accounts for about one-quarter of natural gas production in Australia and rapidly increasing amounts globally. This is the first study worldwide using airborne measurement techniques to quantify methane (CH 4 ) emissions from a producing CSG field: the Surat Basin, Queensland, Australia. Spatially resolved CH 4 emissions were quantified from all major sources based on top-down (TD) and bottom-up (BU) approaches, the latter using Australia's UNFCCC reporting workflow. Based on our TD-validated BU inventory, CSG sources emit about 0.4% of the produced gas, comparable to onshore dry gas fields in the USA and The Netherlands, but substantially smaller than in other onshore regions, especially those where oil is co-produced (wet gas). The CSG CH 4 emission per unit of gas production determined in this study is two to three times higher than existing inventories for the region. Our results indicate that the BU emission factors for feedlots and grazing cattle need review, possibly requiring an increase for Queensland's conditions. In some subregions, the BU estimate for gathering and boosting stations is potentially too high. The results from our iterative BU inventory process, which feeds into TD data, illustrate how global characterization of CH 4 emissions could be improved by incorporating empirical TD verification surveys into national reporting. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 1)’.

COAL SEAM GAS—PETROLEUM OR MINERAL

1997 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 589
Author(s):  
D.J. Gately
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Coal Seam ◽  
Coalbed Methane ◽  
Resource Development ◽  
Coal Seams ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Commercial Use ◽  
Private Sector Investment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Policy Shift

1996 was a watershed year for gas exploration in Queensland: the increasing private sector investment in the search for and commercial use of methane gas from coal seams received legislative endorsement. Coal seam gas (CSG), also known as coalbed methane or CBM, was officially designated as petroleum, with exploration for and production of CSG to be administered under the Petroleum Act.The paper traces the history of exploration for CSG in Queensland since 1976, culminating in a policy shift in 1996. In Queensland there is now potential for overlapping titles and competitive resource development.

Determining the impacts of coal seam gas extraction on water-dependent assets

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
David Post ◽  
Peter Baker ◽  
Damian Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Coal Resource

Many Australians, particularly in rural areas, are seeking clear scientific information about the potential impacts of coal seam gas production on groundwater and surface water across the country. In response to the resultant community concern, the Australian Government commissioned an ambitious multi-disciplinary program of bioregional assessments to improve understanding of the potential impacts of coal seam gas (and large coal mining) activities on water-dependent assets across six bioregions in eastern and central Australia. Delivered through a collaboration between the Department of the Environment, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, and Geoscience Australia—and including close engagement with natural resource management and catchment management organisations, coal resource companies, Indigenous peoples and state governments—the results will allow coal resource companies, governments, and the community to focus on the areas where impacts may occur so that these can be minimised. Key findings of the program will be presented with specific reference to the potential impacts on water-dependent assets due to CSG development by Metgasco and AGL in the Clarence-Moreton and Gloucester regions, respectively.

From wells to decisions—data management for coal seam gas operators in Australia as compared to conventional oil and gas operators

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 716
Author(s):  
Peter Smith ◽  
Iain Paton
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Data Management ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
Conventional Oil

The large number of wells associated with typical coal seam gas (CSG) developments in Australia has changed the paradigm for field management and optimisation. Real time data access, automation and optimisation—which have been previously considered luxuries in conventional resources—are key to the development and operation of fields, which can easily reach more than 1,000 wells. The particular issue in Australia of the shortage of skilled labour and operators has increased pressure to automate field operations. This extended abstract outlines established best practices for gathering the numerous data types associated with wells and surface equipment, and converting that data into information that can inform the decision processes of engineers and managers alike. There will be analysis made of the existing standard, tools, software and data management systems from the conventional oil and gas industry, as well as how some of these can be ported to the CSG fields. The need to define industry standards that are similar to those developed over many years in the conventional oil and gas industry will be discussed. Case studies from Australia and wider international CSG operations will highlight the innovative solutions that can be realised through an integrated project from downhole to office, and how commercial off the shelf solutions have advantages over customised one-off systems. Furthermore, case studies will be presented from both CSG and conventional fields on how these enabling technologies translate into increased production, efficiencies and lift optimisation and move towards the goal of allowing engineers to make informed decisions as quickly as possible. Unique aspects of CSG operations, which require similarly unique and innovative solutions, will be highlighted in contrast to conventional oil and gas.

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