The CO2CRC Otway Project was Australia’s first CCS demonstration project, located onshore in the southwest of Victoria. The project was created to demonstrate the full CCS value chain in a “brownfield” site, develop community confidence and gather information on geological storage processes and monitoring and verification technologies.
In Stage 1 of the project, approximately 64,000 tonnes of CO2 was injected into a depleted gas field and extensively monitored and modelled. Many new technologies were tested, from specific logs, downhole fluid sampling and CO2-resistant cement systems.
Dr Sandeep Sharma was seconded from Schlumberger to CO2CRC in 2004 to develop the CO2CRC Otway project and managed Stage 1 from the beginning to the end of the initial monitoring phase over 5 years. Collaborations included major Australian Universities, CSIRO and The Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, USA. The project was very successful and laid the foundation for other projects at that site and elsewhere in Australia.
Dr Sandeep Sharma is a co-founder and Chairman of CarbonCQ.