2020 is the third consecutive year that inGauge Energy has been contracted by Galilee Energy to design and construct their Glenaras pilot wells.  This year the scope is a 5 well program to compliment the 5 in-seam lateral wells that we drilled over the two previous drilling campaigns.  With years of working history with Galilee and up to the minute knowledge of the third party services and rig markets, inGauge was able to complete the design, contracting and procurement phases in record time and go on to deliver a safe and efficient drilling campaign in the field.  At the time of writing, we have reached TD on the fourth of the five wells with the project running ahead of time and budget.  

Learn more about the project here.

Our NT teams’ 12 months of planning an preparation was rewarded today when our client Empire Energy announced a significant Velkerri Shale discovery in their Northern Territory acreage.  We will complete the well construction phase once the formation evaluation program is executed and we look forward to working together with Empire on the stimulation and flow testing program in the new year.  Carpentaria-1 is the first well for inGauge Energy in the NT, and with it we’ve proven we can design and construct high integrity and economical wells safely for our clients in this harsh and remote environment.   

Learn more about the project here.

This year the Federal Government has released its Technology Investment Roadmap in which it details its plans to focus on new technologies to reach Australia’s  emissions targets. That plan identifies a target cost of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at $20 per tonne of CO2 as one of 5 priority stretch goals. In support of this effort, the Federal Budget released in October of this year commits $50M over the next 3 years to CCS R&D projects.  inGauge Energy has designed and constructed more CCS wells than all other parties combined in Australia. In 2019 inGauge completed the design and construction of four deviated CCS injection wells for CO2CRC in their Otway National Research Facility near Port Campbell in Victoria.  We went on to successfully run complex completions as part of their seismic monitoring array in those wells plus one existing well.  In 2020, and leveraging that expertise, inGauge won the tender to design and construct the West Moonie 1 CCS injection well for CTSCo (a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore) in the Surat Basin in Queensland.

For this project inGauge provided end to end design and project management services, covering environmental assessments, engineering design and procurement, civil construction, logistics and well construction operations management.  We are delighted to report that West Moonie 1 has now been successfully drilled to a depth of 2700m and handed over to CTSCo for use in the next phases of the technology development. We look forward to working with CTSCo again in the near future.

Learn more about the project here.

Today’s announcement by the Northern Territory Government of the granting of approval to Empire for the drilling of their first well in EP187 was a significant milestone for inGauge Energy too.  Using our in-house environmental team we worked on behalf of Empire to gain this approval.  The process involved:

• Site scouting
• Archaeological surveys
• Main Roads permits and road upgrades
• Seeking water bore and land clearing permits
• Obtaining water extraction licences
• Developing and submitting the EMP (Environmental Management Plan)
• Developing and submitting the WOMP (Well Operations Management Plan)
• Managing the geotech survey and report
• Submitting all documents for final Ministerial Approval

inGauge received compliments from the regulators on the quality of our submissions and on our positive proactive engagement. We understand that our EMP approval was achieved in the shortest time yet. We are now busy with the preparation for the drill phase, whilst the environmental and approvals team has begun to focus its attention on the stimulation EMP for next year.

Learn more about the project here.

On Monday 18th November we celebrated the successful completion of the CO2CRC Stage 3 development with our clients at a function centre in Torquay, Victoria.  The function marked the end of approximately 18 months working with CO2CRC in Melbourne since winning the tender to provide the drilling and completions project management services required to deliver their Stage 3 development project.  CO2CRC is developing a CCS (carbon capture and storage) demonstration program at their Otway National Research Facility along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.  Stage 3 required the drilling of 4 new deviated CCS injection and monitoring wells from 2 well pads, and the completion of the 4 new wells plus a pre-existing vertical well.  Now complete the project plan is to inject 15,000 tonnes of CO₂ into a deep saline aquifer at a depth of approximately 1500m.

For inGauge there were numerous technical challenges to overcome, and many of these related to the deployment of sophisticated downhole instrumentation for pressure tomography and inversion (PTI) and seismic monitoring.  Two sets of fibre-optic cables were run on the outside of the 13Cr premium connection production casing and cemented in place.  Each of the cables included 6 individual multi and single mode fibres.    Once set and cemented in place the casing had to be perforated across the aquifer without damaging the fibre optics.  To achieve this, in house designed marker and blast joints were installed on the casing to protect the cables, and Schlumberger perforation orienting tools used to shoot safely past the cables.  All 4 new wells were successfully completed in this way without any cable damage at all!

The wells were later completed with suspended downhole pressure gauges, fibre optics and TEC cables.   The successful delivery of the drilling and completions component of this project was a major milestone for us at inGauge.  We provided a multi-disciplinary team including civil construction, geology, drilling, completions, HSE and project management to deliver a high integrity installation which CO2CRC can rely on to advance the science of CCS monitoring, which is a critical aspect of carbon abatement into the future.

These words are from the CO2CRC website and provide some insight into the magnitude and importance of the project:

The wells are part of CO2CRC’s biggest project to date, known as Otway Stage 3. The project is proving up technologies which provide data on demand, as well as reducing the cost and impact of long-term CO₂ storage monitoring for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.  The next six months will see teams from CSIRO and Curtin University calibrating the pressure tomography monitoring system and performing baseline seismic acquisitions using fibre optics cables and permanently deployed surface orbital vibrators.

“These new technologies provide data quicker, are much less invasive and cost significantly less than the seismic surveys currently used. Initial estimates show cost savings of up to 75 percent,” said David Byers, CEO of CO2CRC.

“Our hope is that the research will lead to more CCS projects around the world, allowing CCS to play a vital role in reducing emissions across all major industry sectors.   As the International Energy Agency points out, without CCS as part of the solution, meeting global climate goals will be practically impossible,” he said.

With the support of its drilling management team, InGauge Energy, the drilling company, Easternwell Drilling and with multiple specialist service providers, the CO2CRC team drilled almost 7km of directional wells, ran 11km of steel casing, 13km of fibre optic cable and pumped 458 tonnes of cement. This represents the largest single project undertaken by CO2CRC in support of testing new and innovative techniques that will support current and future CCS projects both within Australia and globally.

The $45 million project is jointly funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Education Investment Fund (EIF), COAL21 through ANLEC R&D, BHP and the Victorian State Government.

Technical and scientific work programs are being carried out in partnership with Curtin University and CSIRO and are expected to be complete by June 2022.

Learn more about the project here.