The challenge
Extreme environments
One of the largest industry challenges in oil and gas recovery is water production and the associated economical and environmental issues. More than 80 per cent of Australia's gas resources exist in deep, remote, offshore reservoirs.
Our ability to realise their full potential relies on the development of economically-viable solutions to access and transport them over long distances to onshore processing facilities.
Our response
Diverse solutions
We are developing sub-sea technologies for the production of gas resources which may lie as far as 300 km offshore, at depths greater than 1 km.
Our production technologies research is delivering smart materials and engineering solutions to give access to previously stranded gas reserves and ensuring the uninterrupted flow of production fluids in sub-sea pipelines. We are also engineering methods to reduce the amount of water produced in petroleum production, and developing water management strategies.
Additionally, we are developing and improving technologies to optimise gas production and ensure efficient and secure transportation of production fluids from sub-sea reservoirs to onshore processing facilities. These technologies are focused on providing economical and efficient access to our large gas reserves in offshore locations.
The results
Comprehensive program
We have developed a comprehensive research program focused on tackling these issues, focused on:
- compact systems to efficiently separate gas and liquids
- autonomous, remotely controlled robots to monitor production infrastructure and provide real-time data
- technologies to repair sub-sea infrastructure
- sand production software and solutions
- methods to prevent flow disruptions in sub-sea pipelines, particularly formation of gas hydrate crystals
- designer chemistries and fluids for production optimisation.
Accessing our huge reserves of deep water gas will significantly contribute to Australia's energy security and assist the transition to a low emissions energy economy, providing real and sustained benefits to Australia.