Reservoir modelling for underground hydrogen storage in the onshore Otway Basin, Victoria
Peter Ryan A * , Tess Dance B , Samuel J. Jackson C , Mohammad Sayyafzadeh C , Jonathan Ennis-King C and Jacqueline Sutton AA
B
C
Peter Ryan is a Senior Petroleum Geoscientist with more than 35 years’ experience in the hydrocarbon exploration, extraction, and storage industry across all business stages. He joined Lochard in 2021 contributing to the characterisation, management and expansion of their gas storage reservoirs. In his current role, he oversees the geoscience aspects of Lochard’s H2RESTORE Project. |
Tess Dance is a Senior Research Scientist currently leading the Decarbonisation Geoscience Group with CSIRO Energy in Kensington, Western Australia. Her research areas include reservoir characterisation, uncertainty and modelling for CO2 and H2 storage projects. Tess specialises in sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and geological depositional environmental analysis with a focus on implementing new and advanced integrated characterisation techniques. |
Samuel Jackson is a Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO Energy in Clayton, Victoria, and a visiting researcher in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College, London. His research is focussed on understanding multiphase flow in the subsurface across scales – from μm to km, with application to carbon, capture and storage (CCS) and underground hydrogen storage (UHS). |
Mohammad Sayyafzadeh is a Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO Energy in Clayton, Victoria, specialising in the fields of mathematical optimisation, simulation, inverse modelling and uncertainty quantification, and machine learning with applications to an expansive range of engineering problems, including responsible oil and gas, hydrogen, coalbed methane and CCS. |
Jonathan Ennis-King is a Senior Research Scientist CSIRO Energy in Clayton, Victoria. His general research interests are in the modelling and simulation of multiphase flow in porous media, and the coupling of that flow to thermal, mechanical and chemical processes. He has 25 years of experience with CCS research. Since 2017 he has developed projects around underground hydrogen storage and the role it may have in the energy transition. |
Jacqueline Sutton is the Principal Reservoir Engineer, Lochard Energy. She is a chartered Petroleum Engineer with extensive experience in underground gas storage (UGS), exploration and production in the oil and gas industry. Jacqui is Lochard Energy’s representative on the IEA Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Program Underground Hydrogen Storage Research. She is a Registered Engineer. |
Abstract
Lochard Energy, supported by research from CSIRO’s Energy Division, is investigating the feasibility of geological underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in depleted gas fields within the onshore Otway Basin, Victoria. Lochard’s H2RESTORE Project aims to use electricity sourced from the National Electricity Market (likely during periods of high renewable energy generation and low energy demand) to make hydrogen, store it underground as long duration energy storage and then reuse it to generate electricity when demand is high. This paper presents a general overview of a two-stage UHS reservoir modelling approach for porous sandstone reservoirs at two depleted gas fields with contrasting trap geometries and storage objectives. Stage 1 includes the static model building, subsequent dynamic model history matching and conversion to a full compositional model. Stage 2 involves the UHS well placement, setting of hydrogen cycling targets and constraints, initial filling scenario testing and hydrogen cycling analyses. Modelling at Field A was aimed at demonstrating the technical case for UHS feasibility at low hydrogen injection volumes for a pilot project, with acceptable hydrogen purity on production over a minimum number of cycles. Modelling at Field B was designed to demonstrate that a seasonal energy demand profile could be met over a 10-year period within the usual commercial operational constraints associated with cycling gas in underground porous reservoirs. Simulation results were able to demonstrate that hydrogen could be successfully injected and withdrawn at suitable production rates and purity to meet the project objectives at each of the fields.
Keywords: compositional models, cycling, depleted gas fields, hydrogen purity, long duration, Otway Basin, seasonal energy demand, secondary depletion, static and dynamic reservoir modelling, underground hydrogen storage.
Peter Ryan is a Senior Petroleum Geoscientist with more than 35 years’ experience in the hydrocarbon exploration, extraction, and storage industry across all business stages. He joined Lochard in 2021 contributing to the characterisation, management and expansion of their gas storage reservoirs. In his current role, he oversees the geoscience aspects of Lochard’s H2RESTORE Project. |
Tess Dance is a Senior Research Scientist currently leading the Decarbonisation Geoscience Group with CSIRO Energy in Kensington, Western Australia. Her research areas include reservoir characterisation, uncertainty and modelling for CO2 and H2 storage projects. Tess specialises in sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and geological depositional environmental analysis with a focus on implementing new and advanced integrated characterisation techniques. |
Samuel Jackson is a Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO Energy in Clayton, Victoria, and a visiting researcher in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College, London. His research is focussed on understanding multiphase flow in the subsurface across scales – from μm to km, with application to carbon, capture and storage (CCS) and underground hydrogen storage (UHS). |
Mohammad Sayyafzadeh is a Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO Energy in Clayton, Victoria, specialising in the fields of mathematical optimisation, simulation, inverse modelling and uncertainty quantification, and machine learning with applications to an expansive range of engineering problems, including responsible oil and gas, hydrogen, coalbed methane and CCS. |
Jonathan Ennis-King is a Senior Research Scientist CSIRO Energy in Clayton, Victoria. His general research interests are in the modelling and simulation of multiphase flow in porous media, and the coupling of that flow to thermal, mechanical and chemical processes. He has 25 years of experience with CCS research. Since 2017 he has developed projects around underground hydrogen storage and the role it may have in the energy transition. |
Jacqueline Sutton is the Principal Reservoir Engineer, Lochard Energy. She is a chartered Petroleum Engineer with extensive experience in underground gas storage (UGS), exploration and production in the oil and gas industry. Jacqui is Lochard Energy’s representative on the IEA Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Program Underground Hydrogen Storage Research. She is a Registered Engineer. |
