Environmental

Evaluation of Geosequestration potential in offshore Sydney Basin

MEC Resources Limited (ASX: MMR) is pleased to advise that investee company Advent Energy Ltd ("Advent") and has initiated discussions with Australian Government authorities regarding the Company's evaluation of the geosequestration potential for its Petroleum Exploration Permit 11 (PEP11) in the offshore Sydney Basin.

Potential geological structures have been identified less than 50 km from Newcastle and Sydney, and a recent Carbon Dioxide Cooperative Research Centre (CO2CRC) paper has demonstrated the potential for geosequestration and has outlined the potential benefit to New South Wales and Australia if PEP11 should prove suitable for anthropogenic carbon dioxide underground storage. 

A summary of the paper follows below and it is recommended that the CO2CRC paper which can be viewed by clicking on this link CO2CRC Report.pdf, should be read in full.

MEC is an exploration investment company and relies on the resource and ore reserve statements compiled by the companies in which it invests.  All Mineral Resource and Reserve Statements have been previously published by the companies concerned.  Summary data has been used. Unless otherwise stated all resource and reserve reporting complies with the relevant standards.  Resources quoted in this report equal 100% of the resource and do not represent MEC's investees' equity share.
 

New South Wales - Deep Saline Aquifer Storage Potential; Annette Patchett and Rob Langford, CO2CRC Report No: RPT05-0020

Summary

The paper from the Carbon Dioxide Cooperative Research Centre (CO2CRC), extracts of which are summarised below, demonstrates the need and potential for geosequestration and the enormous benefit to New South Wales and Australia if PEP11 should prove suitable for storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide underground storage. 

Potential geological structures have been identified less than 50 km from Newcastle and Sydney.

New South Wales - Deep Saline Aquifer Storage Potential; Annette Patchett and Rob Langford, CO2CRC Report No: RPT05-0020

Introduction

New South Wales has the largest concentration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emission sources in Australia, including oil refineries, coke oven and power stations.  Future emissions projections solely from stationary sources are in the order of 705 Billion cubic metres or 24.9 Tcf of CO2 in the next twenty years (Bradshaw et al. 2002).  The Sydney Basin region, in particular, contains the largest number of stationary CO2 emission sources in Australia.  Eleven major stationary sources of anthropogenic CO2 within the Sydney Basin alone contribute 34% of the total national emissions.
Petroleum Exploration & Potential

The Sydney Basin contains the necessary ingredients for hydrocarbon accumulations, namely abundant source and seal rocks....adequate thermal history, and untested traps.

Triassic reservoirs are the primary exploration target in onshore and offshore areas.

The main source kitchen areas are in the deeper parts of the Lake Macquarie Trough, Macdonald Trough, Offshore Syncline, and Newcastle Syncline.

Seal potential is one of the least critical factors in defining prospectivity in the Sydney Basin as thick shaly units with the potential to act as seals occur throughout the Sydney Basin.
Geosequestration

Fair to good reservoirs are present in the shallow Triassic succession.

Several large structures are present within the Sydney Basin that may have potential as geological sequestration options.

No dry structure potential storage sites have been evaluated in the Sydney Basin despite the potential for substantial underground storage capacity (1-2 Tcf of CO2 in large offshore structures).

The Kulnura Anticline has been assessed for its potential to sequester all stationary anthropogenic CO2 sources in the Sydney Basin.  This would equate to at least 1.1 Tcf a year for a period of at least 20 years (ie. ~22 Tcf).

Conclusions

The Sydney Basin is a major contributor to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.  There are several geological sequestration options in the Sydney Basin that could help reduce these emissions.

There are several closed structures in the onshore and offshore basin with the capacity to sequester between 0.1-2 Tcf of CO2.

Read the paper in full by clicking on this link CO2CRC Report.pdf