Lower Lesueur Carbon Dioxide Geosequestration Study

The Lower Lesueur Carbon Dioxide Geosequestration Study is a joint project being funded by the Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum and a consortium of companies comprising Griffin Energy, Verve Energy, BHP-Billiton Worsley Alumina, Wesfarmers Premier Coal and Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers.

In June 2009 the Western Australian Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore announced that the state government would contribute $250,000 towards the $522,000 cost of the Lower Lesueur Carbon Dioxide Geosequestration Study. The study, the media release stated, would be a "desktop analysis of the suitability of locations to store carbon dioxide in the Southern Perth Basin between Bunbury and Mandurah". The media release stated that the study would "study seismic data and existing well cores to help identify potential injection points and migration behaviour of carbon dioxide."

"The study’s results will determine if work progresses to drilling and assessing a test hole for carbon dioxide storage, as well as a pilot injection and monitoring program," Moore stated in the media release. Carbon Storage Solutions Pty Ltd, a division of international oilfield services provider Schlumberger, undertook the study. The media release stated that the study followed an earlier work undertaken by the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies which identified the geosequestration potential of the Southern Perth Basin.

In its annual report the Department of Mines and Petroleum stated that the study "has implications for the development of clean coal technology and could contribute to the long-term viability of Western Australia's coal industry."

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