There is underexplored prospective geology in the Amadeus, McArthur and Georgina Basins with potential for carbon capture and storage.
Process
Carbon capture and storage (CCS), sometimes referred to as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2), predominantly from the burning of fossil fuels, injecting it deep underground for storage. Depleted conventional oil and gas reservoirs are attractive storage targets as they have already proven to contain good reservoirs and traps that have held gas for millions of years.
Currently, the NT Government are working in collaboration with CSIRO and industry to develop a low emissions CCUS Hub in Middle Arm Precinct.
Prospectivity
NT Geological Survey released a 2024 study "CO2, H2 and compressed air energy storage site screening study - selected onshore basins in the Northern Territory" in NTGS Record 2024-005. The study provides a high-level examination of the Amadeus, Bonaparte (onshore), Georgina, McArthur (including the Beetaloo Sub-basin) and Ngalia basins, including an assessment of their geological storage potential across hydrocarbon reservoirs, saline aquifers and salt diapir. The study includes recommendations for future data acquisition programs to further quantify the geological storage potential of the Northern Territory’s onshore basins.
The presence of porous sandstone and carbonate reservoirs, coupled with excellent seals of halite and anhydrite in the Amadeus, Georgina and McArthur basin suggest that the NT has good CCUS potential. These basins are all frontier and remain largely underexplored by world standards.
View the distribution of petroleum wells and seismic lines and download attributed spatial data across the Territory’s onshore basins through the Northern Territory Geological Survey's online web mapping system STRIKE.
