Technical Review of Gorgon CO2 Injection Project 2013

The Greater Gorgon Area gas fields lie in the Commonwealth Waters off the northwest coast of Western Australia. These gas fields represent a world class gas resource in Australia. The Gorgon field is proposed to be developed with adjacent Jansz-Io field as part of the greater Gorgon field development.
The natural gas in the Gorgon field contains approximately 14% carbon dioxide (CO2) while the natural gas in the Jansz-Io field contains less than 1% carbon dioxide. This CO2 will be produced with the hydrocarbon gases as the fields are developed. Along with minor concentrations of other substances, the CO2 will be separated from the hydrocarbon gases at the LNG processing facility being built on Barrow Island. Established global practice is for the reservoir CO2 to be vented to the atmosphere; however the Gorgon Joint Venturers (GJV) plan to dispose of this reservoir carbon dioxide by injecting it underground into the Dupuy Formation beneath Barrow Island.
As a means of fully understanding the process and the associated risks, the WA Government and the GJV agreed to regularly review the technical work for “due diligence” purposes. The Department of Mines and Petroleum (the ‘DMP’) has engaged independent consultants to appraise the feasibility of the GJV’s proposal to dispose reservoir CO2 on Barrow Island. To date, four phases of independent “due diligence” reviews have been performed by selected consultants for a comprehensive evaluation of the Gorgon CO2 Injection Project.
This Due Diligence review requires professional consultants to assess if the GJV has addressed key previous engineering and geotechnical recommendations by the Gorgon CO2 Injection Project operator.
Additionally, it also requires that an ‘on-the-job’ training program should be incorporated for the relevant technical staff at DMP.