Project Summary
The Precipice Sandstone, Evergreen Formation and Hutton sandstones make up important strata for the storage of CO2 in the Surat Basin.
Dynamic simulations that predict the subsurface distribution of the injected greenhouse gas at Glenhaven will be influenced by the assumption of the distribution of the vertical component (Kv). Defining the distribution of clay layers and lenses, the clay and other minerals within and between lithological facies, their presence, continuity and extent will impact on modelling permeability and reactivity of the Precipice reservoir. These key sedimentological and diagenetic attributes are expected to impact the Kv of storage reservoir permeability.
Hyperspectral scanning of drill cores has recently become a popular method for understanding the mineralogy of rocks in addition to other complementary mineralogical methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD). It has a variety of geological applications in mineral exploration, sedimentary geology, and hydrocarbon resources studies. In this study, we used the TSG-Core™ software to analyse hyperspectral data from HyLogger™ to study the Short Wavelength Infrared (SWIR) and Thermal Infrared (TIR) hyperspectral characteristics of the open file Woleebee Creek GW4 core in the Surat Basin in order to identify dominant and secondary minerals in the Precipice Sandstone, Evergreen Formation, and Hutton Sandstone.
The main aim of the project is to test the use of hyperspectral sensors for investigating the mineralogical composition, in particular the occurrence of potentially low permeability or baffling layers containing clay and other reactive minerals, of the Precipice Sandstone at the outcrop scale. These data can be integrated with sedimentary interpretations of outcrop, wireline and other available core data and can be used to condition the interpretation and interpolation of reservoir properties within both static and dynamic 3D models of the Precipice and overlying formations. This technique is relatively new and although remote airborne and core-based sensors are widely available, field-based systems are rare and still require development.
