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CCS Well Breaks Record
The stratigraphic well GSWA Harvey-1, near the southwest town of Harvey, has set a record as the deepest hole the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) has ever drilled.
At a total depth of 2945 m, it is 927.5 m deeper than the previous record well, GSWA Vines-1 which drilled to 2017.5 m in the Officer Basin in 1999.
The well was spudded on 6 February and total depth was reached on 8 March, with wireline logging starting the following day.
The Geological Survey has been drilling wells and acquiring data since the 1880s to better understand the geology and mineral and petroleum potential of the State.
The well, jointly funded by the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) and the Commonwealth, has provided new data for the southern Perth Basin in investigating the possibilities for carbon dioxide storage for the SW Hub CCS Project, as well as determining the petroleum and geothermal potential for the area.
The drilling was part of the South West Hub CCS project. DMP Coordinator Carbon Strategy, Dominique Van Gent, said preliminary results indicated more than 95% of the objectives of drilling the well were reached. More than 300 m of core was collected and will undergo a testing program.
"A number of continuous measurements were also obtained down the hole to gather information on the properties of the sedimentary rocks, such as density and their potential to store carbon dioxide", he said.
Further testing, including a 3D seismic survey, will be carried out later this year.
Van Gent said the drill rig had left the site, the well plugged and rehabilitation work was being conducted.
"The data will be analysed over a six month period by a team of specialist scientists and engineers", Van Gent said.
The coring and wireline logging program is one of the most sophisticated ever run in the State and will provide much needed data for the SW Hub CCS Project as well as a better understanding of the geology of the southern Perth Basin.
This data will be processed and used by the Geological Survey, industry and research organisations like CSIRO, the University of WA and Curtin University to build detailed models for the planning of further data acquisition in the area.
The well has attracted both national and international interest as an investigative well for carbon dioxide storage and placed Western Australia firmly on the map in this discipline, the DMP said.
