CCS projects and insights from across Australia : SPE WA – PESA joint event
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Society of Petroleum Engineers Western Australia is proud to present the details of our May 2025 SPE WA Technical Evening Meeting which will be held jointly with PESA.
Guest Speakers: Robert Root, Anne Forbes, Julie Cass
Robert Root has over 22 years of experience with Chevron in a variety of leadership and technical roles spanning exploration, appraisal, development, operations, CCS and business planning in Australia and the USA. Currently Robert is the Gorgon Asset Development Manager for Chevron Australia with a remit that includes producing Gorgon and Jansz gas/condensate fields in offshore NWS Australia, Gorgon CCS operations and remediation activities on Barrow Island, and future backfill and development optimisation projects.
Prior to joining Chevron Robert completed a PhD from the Australia School of Petroleum focusing on CCS in the Gippsland Basin of SE Australia.
Julie Cass is a petrophysicist with over 20 years international experience in the oil and gas industry in leadership and technical positions with a record of accomplishment in delivering technically challenging projects that spans: exploration, appraisal and development subsurface projects, LNG production management and carbon sequestration. She currently works for the Geological Survey and Resource Strategy Division of the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety as the Manager of Geological Storage and Geothermal Systems. Before joining the survey Julie worked for Chevron Australia in Perth, Marathon Oil and Helix RDS in the UK, and Santos in Brisbane. Julie has worked on a diverse range of assets, in many countries, across many depositional settings and fluid types. Julie has a Bachelor of Science (Applied Geology) and a Master’s degree in Engineering Science (Petroleum Engineering) from Curtin University.
Anne Forbes is a senior research analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s Australasia upstream research team. Since joining in early 2022, she has worked on oil and gas assets and the domestic market balance across Australia. Prior to Wood Mackenzie Anne spent eight years at Chemostrat in a technical geological role in the upstream industry. She specialised in stratigraphic analysis and has worked across Australia’s principal producing basins. She has a Bachelors and Masters in Geology from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Volcanology from the Open University.
About the Presentations:
Gorgon Carbon Capture and Storage – Insights and Lessons Learned
Robert Root (Chevron Australia) will provide an overview of Gorgon CCS including performance to date, system optimization, and key lessons for other CCS projects. The Gorgon Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plant is supplied by gas from two foundation fields: Jansz which has low reservoir CO2, and Gorgon which is relatively high in reservoir CO2 (~14%). The design of Gorgon Project included systems to extract CO2 from the reservoir gas stream feeding the LNG plant and inject it into the Dupuy Formation below Barrow Island (BWI) for permanent storage. Since 2019 CO2 has been injected into the Dupuy at globally significant rates with over 10 million tonnes injected, however the system has been limited by the capacity to manage reservoir pressure through producing water from the Dupuy Formation and injection into the overlying Barrow Group. Activities are currently underway to increase pressure management capacity including side-tracking and re-completing existing wells, drilling additional wells, and installation of surface filtration facilities.
CO₂mpartmentalising Climate Change: Perth Basin’s Role
Julie Cass (DEMIRS) will discuss reservoir quality controls in the Perth Basin that have been evaluated to rank carbon storage targets for a CO₂ Storage Atlas being prepared by the Geological Survey of Western Australia. The key attributes for the most prospective targets include thick intervals with high net-to-gross passing cut-off criteria of shale volume below 30% and porosity greater than 10% at depths suitable for supercritical CO₂ storage. Reservoir heterogeneity is preferred as it permits greater lateral plume migration by enhancing residual gas trapping thereby boosting storage efficiency. These attributes alongside seal effectiveness determine the most suitable storage intervals.
The Cattamarra Coal Measures emerged as the highest-ranked storage interval of the evaluated targets. It is characterised by thick, high net-to-gross sections with coarse-grained channel sands providing excellent injection potential. Burial and temperature control diagenesis which naturally degrades porosity and permeability with depth ultimately defining the lower limit of intervals prospective for storage. A combination of temperature modelling, petrophysical analysis and depth mapping has been utilized to delineate the Cattamarra Coal Measures reservoir target and assess the overlying regional seal of the Cadda Formation.
Global CCUS overview: Pivotal progress and persistent challenges
Anne Forbes (Wood Mackenzie) (abstract to come)
About the Event
Price: Early Bird SPE Member $40 <Until 8 May 2025>
Early Bird Non-Member $60 <Until 8 May 2025>
SPE Member $50
Non-Member $70
Date: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Location: Parmelia Hilton Hotel
Location: 14 Mill Street, Perth WA 6000
Time: 4:45pm – 5:15pm Registration, welcome drinks and networking.
Time: 5:15pm – 6:30pm Opening remarks and first session presentation.
Time: 6:30pm – 7:15pm Food and drinks
Time: 7:15pm – 7:45pm Second session presentations.
Time: 7:45pm – 8:00 pm Post talk networking.
Free tickets are available for Students. SPE WA in conjunction with our sponsors is kindly sponsoring students to attend the monthly technical events. Please apply through your Student Chapter.