Chevron Australia Pty Ltd formed a Strategic Research Alliance with WA:ERA in 2005 which significantly increased the level of oil and gas research in Western Australia. The Western Australian Alliance for Advanced Energy Solutions (AES:WA) is a vehicle for maximising ongoing and future investment in research projects in Western Australia that are relevant to:
- oil and gas exploration and development
- hydrocarbon processing
- industry related health, safety and environmental issues
- education and training initiatives.
The Alliance provides for multiple research projects over an open-ended period, with Chevron committing to invest up to A$5 million annually.
Chevron has also recently located their Asia-Pacific Global Technology Centre (GTC) in Perth. The GTC is only the third such international centre established by Chevron, signalling their strong interest in developing excellence in gas research capability in Western Australia. While Chevron has a very strong Australasian business unit in Perth, other factors affecting the decision to locate the GTC in Perth included the high calibre of the universities and the quality of potential recruits available. The GTC will benefit WA:ERA through increasing Chevron’s spread of technology activities in Perth, improving the scope for collaborative work and engagement.
Chevron aims to enhance its relationships in the gas value chain from subsurface all the way to outlet of facilities, and plans to do more research in that area. To this end, Chevron has signalled significant interest in the Australian Gas Centre initiative currently under discussion. As a step in this direction, in 2007 Chevron committed to fund three LNG projects (two at UWA and one at Curtin), and has also provided substantial funding in the gas-to-liquids (GTL) research area, with projects both at Curtin’s Centre for Fuels and Energy, and CSIRO. In all there are now in excess of 30 projects currently funded through WA:ERA in the gas technologies arena, all in less than three years. In the third year of the Joint Venture there has been significant change, with Chevron becoming more aware of the WA:ERA partners’ specific capabilities, leading to a closer and more productive working relationship. Having the AES:WA team located near WA:ERA’s management within the ARRC building at Bentley has also been an advantage. The Alliance allows Chevron to use and invest in the resources and talents of the three WA:ERA partners within a single contract, and the past three years has seen very good engagement develop with each of the individual organisations. The maturing of the relationship should lead to more collaborative discussions and activities between the three parties, taking Chevron’s research activities with WA:ERA to the next level of collaboration.
Dr Tony Eaton
Manager, AES:WA
Chevron Energy Technology Company Pty Ltd
Chevron News
In 2004 Woodside Energy signed a Joint Venture agreement for a five-year program with WA:ERA worth up to A$30 million. R2D3 (Research to Discover, Develop and Deploy energy solutions for a sustainable future) provides increased industry focus and funding for the activities being undertaken by WA:ERA. R2D3 enables Woodside to create tailored research programs and makes sure that results are fully integrated as a value-added activity into the business, with a strong emphasis on technology deployment. The Joint Venture is now in its third year and is maturing with a focus on deepening peer-to-peer relationships between technical specialists within the two organisations.
Projects started this year include the creation of Professorial Chairs in Corrosion Engineering at Curtin, and Petroleum Geoscience at UWA, in conjunction with Chevron Australia Pty Ltd. These are important positions that should develop into conduits linking WA:ERA capability with Woodside’s needs. Woodside has provided substantial funding for the Woodside Hydrocarbon Research Facility under the direction of Professor Robert Amin, and has supported pilot plant construction and operation in order to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of some of the resulting technologies. It recently extended that funding in support of the National Gas Separation and Subsea Multiphase Flow Loop Facility, opened by the Minister of Energy, Resources, Industry and Enterprise, the Honourable Francis Logan in May 2007. This facility is capable of mirroring the conditions on the sea bed at Pluto, which is significant as 2007 has seen Woodside gain approval for the Pluto LNG project to be built on the Burrup Peninsula.
Woodside was the principal industry sponsor of the inaugural WA:ERA project in the area of subsea gas processing, and an important development in 2007 was the field trial of cryogenic gas dehydration technology (developed at the Woodside Hydrocarbon Research Facility) at ARC Energy’s Xyris Gas Field Production Facility at Dongara. The experience of working with a test site has demonstrated the value of access to local onshore fields where technologies can be assessed without the exposure and cost of offshore application.
Remote gas development will also benefit from the improved understanding of the impact of submarine landslides on pipelines located on the edge of the continental shelf, with a study that employs the geotechnical centrifuge at UWA’s Centre for Offshore Foundations and Structures. A behavioural
study at Curtin is also underway which aims to better understand the factors that lead to the formation and operation of reliable and safe maintenance teams.
Woodside brought its Enfield and Chinguetti reservoirs to steady state production during 2007, and in both cases was able to use timelapse or 4D seismic to fine tune the reservoir development by “seeing” the water front move from the water injection wells and flush oil to the production wells. This was the first application of time-lapse seismic offshore Australia. A non-seismic exploration technique, known as Controlled Source Electromagnetic (CSEM), was used by Woodside for exploration, also for the first time in Australia. CSEM can improve the probability of exploration success when used together with conventional techniques such as 3D seismic. Both 4D seismic and CSEM require the best minds in physics and mathematics, and geophysics continues to be an area in which the Australian research community has a vital role to play. Woodside looks forwards to a strengthening of the exploration geophysics capability of WA:ERA.
Technology and innovation can play a significant role in enabling projects to proceed in the current challenging environment. In 2005, Woodside decided to construct the North West Shelf Venture’s LNG Train 5 in modular fashion, a world first for LNG. The construction is on schedule to make LNG deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Innovative construction technologies and other key technologies such as those being pursued by the recently established Collaboration Cluster on Subsea Pipelines, will in time significantly reduce the cost of developing world-scale, remote, offshore gas. Woodside would like to see more innovation in the fields of gas plant and remote gas construction technology, as a means to this end. Woodside is with WA:ERA for the long game and appreciates the stronger WA:ERA team now emerging.
Mr Neil Kavanagh
Chief Science and Technology Officer
Woodside Energy Ltd
