Environmental Assesssment Report Fracture Stimulation Operations in the Cooper Basin, South Australia August 2014 Supplement to the Drilling and Well Operations EIR 2003 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5 1.1. Background ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. Santos Cooper Basin Operations ......................................................................................... 5 1.3. Intent of Document ................................................................................................................ 5 1.4. What is fracture stimulation ................................................................................................... 6 2. Legislative Framework ...................................................................................................................... 9 2.1. Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000 ...................................................................... 9 2.2. Statement of Environmental Objectives ............................................................................. 10 2.3. Environmental Impact Report ............................................................................................. 10 2.4. Activity Notification .............................................................................................................. 10 3. Well Design and Best Practice ........................................................................................................ 11 3.1. Comparison to International Best Practice ......................................................................... 11 3.2. Well Mechanical Integrity and Inteegrity Testing ................................................................. 12 4. Description of the Fracture Stimulation Process ............................................................................ 21 4.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 21 4.2. Description of Hydrocarbon Reservoir Formations in the Study Area ............................... 21 4.3. Purpose of the Fracture Stimulation Process .................................................................... 25 4.4. Fracture Stimulation Design Considerations ..................................................................... 26 4.5. Fracture Stimulation Process Description .......................................................................... 29 4.6. Infrastructure and Equipment Used ................................................................................... 32 4.7. Stages of Fracture Stimulation ............................................................................................ 36 4.8. Fracture Stimulation Water Use .......................................................................................... 46 4.9. Other Components of Fracture Stimulation Operations ..................................................... 48 5. Location ........................................................................................................................................... 50 5.1. Cooper Basin ...................................................................................................................... 50 5.2. Geology and Hydrogeology ................................................................................................ 50 6. Environment .................................................................................................................................... 59 6.1. Biophysical Environment ..................................................................................................... 59 6.2. Social Environment ............................................................................................................. 67 Page 1 of 110 Environmental Assessment Report – Fracture Stimulation Operations 6.3. Heritage .............................................................................................................................. 69 6.4. Stakeholder Consultation ................................................................................................... 70 7. Risk Assessment ............................................................................................................................ 72 7.1. Geology .............................................................................................................................. 74 7.2. Aquifers .............................................................................................................................. 74 7.3. Soil and Shallow Groundwater ........................................................................................... 79 7.4. Surface Water .................................................................................................................... 82 7.5. Stock / Wildlife and Vegetation .......................................................................................... 83 7.6. Noise and Air Emissions .................................................................................................... 85 7.7. Radioactivity ....................................................................................................................... 86 7.8. Seismicity ........................................................................................................................... 86 7.9. Public Safety ...................................................................................................................... 87 7.10. Cultural Heritage ................................................................................................................ 87 7.11. Risk Assessment Summary and Cumulative Impacts ....................................................... 87 8. Environmental Management .......................................................................................................... 89 8.1. Management Standards ..................................................................................................... 89 8.2. Hazard Standards .............................................................................................................. 90 8.3. Statement of Environmental Objectives ............................................................................. 91 8.4. Job Safety Analysis and Permit to Work ............................................................................ 91 8.5. Training .............................................................................................................................. 92 8.6. Emergency Preparedness.................................................................................................. 92 8.7. Incident Response and Management ................................................................................ 92 9. References ..................................................................................................................................... 94 10. List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... 97 Appendices APPENDIX A - Risk Assessment Table APPENDIX B - Example Waste Management Plan APPENDIX C - List of Typical Chemicals Used in Fracture Stimulation APPENDIX D – Fracture Fluid Mass Balance Calculation APPENDIX E: Santos Environmental Policy Page 2 of 110 Environmental Assessment Report – Fracture Stimulation Operations Tables Table 1: Forecast water use for 2014 categorised by fracture stimulation job type ........................................ 47 Table 2: Summary of salinity, pressure and permeability characteristics ....................................................... 54 Table 3 Summary of current and potential unconventional resources ............................................................ 56 Table 4 Cooper Creek flood classes, volumes and frequency ........................................................................ 63 Table 5: Land types and Aboriginal artefacts .................................................................................................. 69 Figures Figure 1 Exploration permits in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins .................................................................. 8 Figure 2 Casing design analysis ...................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 3 Conceptual conventional or unconventional Cooper Basin well construction data detail ................. 19 Figure 4: Three string casing design ............................................................................................................... 20 Figure 5: Oil and gas fields of the South Australian Patchawarra, Nappamerri and Allunga Troughs. .......... 22 Figure 6 Oil accumulations in the Eromanga Basin, South Australia (from Drexel and Preiss (eds) 1995) ... 22 Figure 7: Cooper Basin stratigraphy ................................................................................................................ 24 Figure 8 FracPro model output for proposed fracture stimulation treatment in Alwyn 7 ................................. 28 Figure 9: Typical fracture height growth measured during shale gas stimulation in the Eagle Ford (USA) with Cooper Basin well section superimposed (Source: Fisher