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| Titel |
Environmental baseline conditions for impact assessment of unconventional gas exploitation: the G-Baseline project |
| VerfasserIn |
Wolfram Kloppmann, Berhard Mayer, Romain Millot, Beth L. Parker, Eric Gaucher, Christopher R. Clarkson, John A. Cherry, Pauline Humez, Aaron Cahill |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2015
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 17 (2015) |
| Datensatznummer |
250107262
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2015-6958.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| A major scientific challenge and an indispensible prerequisite for environmental impact
assessment in the context of unconventional gas development is the determination of
the baseline conditions against which potential environmental impacts on shallow
freshwater resources can be accurately and quantitatively tested. Groundwater and
surface water resources overlying the low-permeability hydrocarbon host rocks
containing shale gas may be impacted to different extents by naturally occurring saline
fluids and by natural gas emanations. Baseline assessments in areas of previous
conventional hydrocarbon production may also reveal anthropogenic impacts from these
activities not related to unconventional gas development. Once unconventional
gas exploitation has started, the baseline may be irrevocably lost by the intricate
superposition of geogenic and potential anthropogenic contamination by stray gas,
formation waters and chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. The objective of the
Franco-Canadian NSERC-ANR project G-Baseline is to develop an innovative
and comprehensive methodology of geochemical and isotopic characterization
of the environmental baseline for water and gas samples from all three essential
zones: (1) the production zone, including flowback waters, (2) the intermediate zone
comprised of overlying formations, and (3) shallow aquifers and surface water
systems where contamination may result from diverse natural or human impacts. The
outcome will be the establishment of a methodology based on innovative tracer
and monitoring techniques, including traditional and non-traditional isotopes (C,
H, O, S, B, Sr, Cl, Br, N, U, Li, Cu, Zn, CSIA/¦) for detecting, quantifying and
modeling of potential leakage of stray gas and of saline formation water mixed with
flowback fluids into fresh groundwater resources and surface waters taking into
account the pathways and mechanisms of fluid and gas migration. Here we present an
outline of the project as well as first results from chemical and isotopic analyses on
gas, fluid and solid samples collected during a baseline monitoring program at the
Carbon Management Canada field research site in south-eastern Alberta, Canada. |
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