Presentation given to meeting of food and beverage industry stakeholders in Sydney, 2016. Discusses water risks and opportunities and the uneasy meeting of multiple stakeholders in natural resources. New risk mapping app also discussed.

1. Nathan Littlewood
Consultant Hydrogeologist
Water Security & Coal Seam Gas
- An Australian Experience
www.blueops.software

2. Introduction
good! not so good!
carbonated methanated
• The challenge of sharing water resources
• Coal seam gas (CSG) as an Australian example
• Meeting the challenge
Farm supply
bore in
Queensland
Rare, but a
perception
risk

3. Global Water
• There are already significant stresses
• Population growth and changing diets
• Threat and opportunity is location specific –
e.g. Australia is not ‘High Stress’ everywhere,
other countries may have a different suite of
water challenges

4. Global Water
• A 40% shortfall in water supply is forecast for 2030
• Groundwater has an important role to play
• Out of sight = out of mind. Groundwater needs
better promotion and understanding

5. Australia’s groundwater resources
• Australia has extensive groundwater resources, a
small population and lots of space
• Resources are comparatively well understood and
regulated
• Aquifers are often in the same areas as
unconventional gas prospects
• The Great Artesian Basin is an iconic example, 22%
of land mass, relatively isolated from surface
variability, stores 65,000,000 ML

6. Coal seam gas (CSG) production
• CSG requires a network of production wells
because the gas has not migrated to a localised
reservoir
• Groundwater pressure holds the gas in the coal
• Lowering the water pressure by pumping
allows the gas to flow to the production well

7. CSG in Queensland
Conceptual model of the Surat Basin (Source: UWIR, 2012)
• Queensland has the biggest CSG
projects in Australia
• The producing coals are
discontinuous and lie within a
complex array of stacked aquifers
• Lessons have been learnt from
overseas but there are potential
risks/impacts, which have to be
balanced with the significant
opportunities

8. CSG in Queensland
• There has been rapid growth, leading to nervous stakeholders
• In the Surat Basin approximately 5000 wells have been drilled in the last 6-7 years
• Nearly 20,000 production wells are approved for drilling in existing projects
• Careful establishment of baseline conditions and ongoing surveillance is needed
CSG production GW-fed agricultural land
Coal mine
Condamine River
Alluvial Aquifer
This way to an
extensive
contaminant
plume,
currently under
investigation
This way to a
very high
quality aquifer
with available
water
allocations

9. Risks to water quantity • A key issue is the reduction in water levels
caused by the cumulative impacts of the
CSG projects
• Water supply bores may become dry
• Flow regimes may be irreversibly altered

10. Risks to water quality
• There is lots of storage at surface:
brine, fracking fluids, drilling
muds.
• Injected fluids may not be fully
contained
• Gas leaks at surface are a growing
problem (more bubbles since this
photo)
Each step
has risks -
but can be
safe if well
managed
Source: CSIRO
brine pond
>1km
river

11. Opportunities for innovation and collaboration?
Source: USGS
• Large quantities of co-produced
groundwater need to be disposed of
• Currently this is treated to produce
drinking-quality water plus a brine waste
stream
• Re-injection of treated water is a
favoured management option - a broad
benefit to all stakeholders
• Perhaps some of this water could have a
more targeted destination
• No ‘beneficial use’ has yet been found for
the brine waste. Currently stored in
evaporation ponds

12. Making sense of the data
Geography
Hydrogeology & geochemistry
Yield potential
Stakeholder issues
Regulator zones
Alternatives sources & water trading
$
To assess risks, collation and
aggregation of multiple data
streams is required, but this
is a difficult task

13. Making sense of the data BlueOps: a groundwater surveillance, risk
assessment and valuation tool. Being
developed in Brisbane through collaboration
between hydrogeologists, GIS analysts,
software designers and ‘big data’ experts.
www.blueops.software

14. Risk screening and assessment
• The ‘App’ will operate in the
Water Security space
• Provides a high-level screen to
facilitate decision-making and
tiered assessments
• Can be tailored for specific
industries
www.blueops.software

15. Part of an evolving strategic toolkit
• Designed to support evolving governance landscape, growth plans, investment strategy
• A single interface that provides high-level risk screening to a non-specialist
• Output of surveillance analysis: Can produce periodic reports for those with a watching brief
on groundwater threats and opportunities; industry movements (e.g. CSG); relevant policy and
legislation developments; water allocation and pricing changes
• The developers would love your feedback please! (visit www.blueops.software)
www.blueops.software

16. Conclusions
• Water security is a prevailing business, geopolitical and social risk
• Groundwater is an important and under-utilised resource
• CSG is one of many competing users, with specific risks
• Australia has compelling opportunities where business and natural environments match
• Making sense of the large and disparate data set is crucial to informed decision-making
Questions?
Nathan Littlewood | petrocgroup@gmail.com | www.blueops.software | +61 (0)426 120 043
www.blueops.software

17. References | Bibliography
CSIRO (2013) Characterisation of regional fluxes of methane in the Surat Basin, Queensland – Phase 1: A Review and Analysis
of Literature on Methane Detection and Flux Determination
HSBC Global Research (2013). ‘Water: resilience in a thirsty world’
McKinsey 2030 Water Resources Group (2009). ‘Charting Our Water Future’
National Groundwater Association, USA
National Water Account 2014. http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/
Deloitte Access Economics (2013). ‘Economic Value of Groundwater in Australia’
Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4610.0
General Electric (GE)/World Resources Institute (WRI) (2016) Water-Energy Nexus: Business Risks and Rewards
The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition
Moss & Frodl, (2016) Harvard Business Review
JP Morgan (2008). ‘Watching Water – A guide to evaluating corporate risks in a thirsty world’
Ceres (2015) An Investor Handbook for Water Risk Integration
WRI Aqueduct Atlas. http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/aqueduct
UWIR (2012) https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/ogia/surat-underground-water-impact-report
www.blueops.software