A two-year baseline monitoring project is set to become part of the Perth Basin Shale and Tight Gas Monitoring Joint Industry Program.
| Date: | Thursday, 05 November 2015 |
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A two-year baseline monitoring project is set to become part of the Perth Basin Shale and Tight Gas Monitoring Joint Industry Program.
Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) Director General Richard Sellers said the program would help improve our understanding of suitable methods and protocols for establishing environmental baselines associated with shale and tight gas development.
The project ‘Baseline Characterisation and Monitoring Protocols for Development of Shale and Tight Gas Resources, Perth Basin’ will include the identification of vulnerable environment aspects to more effectively target monitoring for potential impact.
“It will focus on techniques for establishing baseline values of methane in near-surface, surface and shallow-subsurface environments of the Perth Basin and micro-seismic activities in the deep sub-surface,” Mr Sellers said.
The baseline project will be carried out by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in collaboration with the University of Western Australia.
Mr Sellers said he was pleased the department was a project sponsor along with four oil and gas operators in the mid-west (AWE, Origin, Norwest Energy and Transerv Energy).
“DMP will also participate in the project as an advisory committee member to ensure it aligns with the goals of the monitoring program to study potential environmental impacts of onshore gas development in the Perth Basin,” he said.
The Department of Water is on the advisory committee as an observer to ensure the water science is accurate, available and applied appropriately to enhance the government’s water resource management goals.
The CSIRO will provide the sponsors with the interim reports and data of specific studies as they were finalised.
The project will also develop a GIS based database containing all monitoring data and geological information obtained as part of the study, along with a comprehensive report analysing the data obtained from groundwater, soil gas, atmosphere and micro-seismic measurements.
