Industrial Transformation Research Hubs - Grant ID: IH140100012
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,997,672.00
Summary
ARC Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities. ARC Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities. This research hub aims to address the critical engineering challenges associated with Australia’s next generation of offshore oil and gas projects. These projects, in remote deep-water locations, will require innovative floating facilities. Using world-leading expertise in metocean, hydrodynamic, geotechnical and reliability engineering, the hub aims to develop the new technologies and analysis ....ARC Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities. ARC Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities. This research hub aims to address the critical engineering challenges associated with Australia’s next generation of offshore oil and gas projects. These projects, in remote deep-water locations, will require innovative floating facilities. Using world-leading expertise in metocean, hydrodynamic, geotechnical and reliability engineering, the hub aims to develop the new technologies and analysis methods that are required to make projects safe, efficient and cost-effective. This research will include wave and current forecasting, vessel motion and offloading analysis, riser and mooring longevity and novel anchoring and subsea foundations. This is expected to lead to safer, more economical projects and should develop Western Australia’s role as an oil and gas centre of excellence.Read moreRead less
Unlocking Australia's offshore gas endowment. This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of t ....Unlocking Australia's offshore gas endowment. This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of the costs required to prevent solids forming in subsea pipelines or cryogenic LNG plants. The project’s expected outcome include sophisticated tools in open-access software based on these new predictive methods, and a step-change in Australia’s ability to access its offshore gas.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100903
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,020.00
Summary
Advanced numerical and physical modelling of dynamically penetrating anchors for deep water oil and gas developments. Dynamically penetrating anchors (DPAs) are a recent and promising mooring concept for deep water oil and gas developments. Yet, the application of dynamically penetrating anchors remains limited due to a lack of understanding of their performance during dynamic installation and monotonic pull-out and because there are no robust models to simulate these processes. This project wil ....Advanced numerical and physical modelling of dynamically penetrating anchors for deep water oil and gas developments. Dynamically penetrating anchors (DPAs) are a recent and promising mooring concept for deep water oil and gas developments. Yet, the application of dynamically penetrating anchors remains limited due to a lack of understanding of their performance during dynamic installation and monotonic pull-out and because there are no robust models to simulate these processes. This project will advance numerical and physical models of dynamically penetrating anchors impacting the seafloor and embedding into the sediment, and rotating to align with the mooring line upon pull-out. This will lead to accurate predictions for both installation and operation. Robustness will be ensured by accounting for the actual failure mechanisms, high strain rates, potential anchor diving and characteristics of calcareous silt.Read moreRead less
Investigation of alternative footing shapes to mitigate instabilities during installation of offshore drilling platforms. Spudcan footings are used to support three legged mobile drilling rigs, exploring and extracting oil and gas in water depths of up to 150 metres. Despite efforts by the industry to minimise the risks during rig installation, punch-through incidents (i.e. unexpected rapid penetration of the footings) and bending of the leg whilst installing the spudcan next to a footprint (poc ....Investigation of alternative footing shapes to mitigate instabilities during installation of offshore drilling platforms. Spudcan footings are used to support three legged mobile drilling rigs, exploring and extracting oil and gas in water depths of up to 150 metres. Despite efforts by the industry to minimise the risks during rig installation, punch-through incidents (i.e. unexpected rapid penetration of the footings) and bending of the leg whilst installing the spudcan next to a footprint (pockmark from previous rig installation) continue to occur at an increasing rate, causing economic loss of $5 to50 million per incident. Combining advanced physical and numerical modelling, this project aims to develop optimised spudcan shapes, and corresponding design approaches and guidelines, to mitigate these risks, ensuring safe installation of rigs in hazardous regions.Read moreRead less
Estimation of spudcan penetration resistance in stratified soils directly from field penetrometer data and quantification of punch-through risk. Foundations for mobile drilling rigs exhibit significant failure rate in the offshore oil and gas industry, which contributes $22 billion annually to the Australian economy. The project will develop a robust design approach for these foundations, based on field penetrometer data and accounting for the highly stratified nature of offshore sediments.
Dynamic evolution of submarine slides and consequences for offshore developments. Oil and gas developments in deep water are at considerable risk from submarine landslides, which may be orders of magnitude larger than onshore landslides. The project will develop new approaches for modelling the initiation and flow kinematics of submarine slides with the aim of quantifying impact forces on offshore infrastructure.
Detachments in evaporites and shales: their controls on fold-thrust belt style and wedge geometry. Deepwater fold-thrust belts comprise large structural traps, currently a major focus of Australian petroleum exploration. The structural style of a fold-thrust belt is controlled by its detachment and new field analogues will demonstrate the fundamental role of detachments.
Shale rock characterisation using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. This project aims to assess the viability of potential shale oil and gas reserves, using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) core analysis and well logging techniques to characterise shale samples. Shale oil and gas reserves have the potential to provide a rapidly dispatchable energy source, which could play a key role as a transition fuel to renewable energy. The project will develop techniques to deliver quantitative fluid typing, prod ....Shale rock characterisation using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. This project aims to assess the viability of potential shale oil and gas reserves, using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) core analysis and well logging techniques to characterise shale samples. Shale oil and gas reserves have the potential to provide a rapidly dispatchable energy source, which could play a key role as a transition fuel to renewable energy. The project will develop techniques to deliver quantitative fluid typing, producible porosity, pore sizes and permeability measurements for shale samples, which could be used in the shale gas and oil industry. These techniques will improve the predictability of shale field developments that better inform their economic and environmental impact.
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Sustainable recovery of gas hydrate using carbondioxide. This project aims to develop a gas exchange method to sustainably extract methane from gas hydrates – an abundant and far cleaner energy than coal – while simultaneously sequestering carbon dioxide in its place. This project expects to overcome existing methods’ risk of contaminating the ocean and killing sea life with methane gas. Expected outcomes of this project include a framework of the mechanics of gas hydrates during gas exchange; e ....Sustainable recovery of gas hydrate using carbondioxide. This project aims to develop a gas exchange method to sustainably extract methane from gas hydrates – an abundant and far cleaner energy than coal – while simultaneously sequestering carbon dioxide in its place. This project expects to overcome existing methods’ risk of contaminating the ocean and killing sea life with methane gas. Expected outcomes of this project include a framework of the mechanics of gas hydrates during gas exchange; experimental exploration of the new method; and strategies for efficient gas recovery. This should provide significant benefits in that swapping waste carbon dioxide for an ample low-carbon energy source caters to ever-growing global energy demands while still reducing greenhouse emissions.Read moreRead less
Relative Permeability in Coal. This project aims to deliver a better model for coal relative permeability to improve the management of coal seam gas reservoirs. Coal relative permeability is a key factor in reservoir models; however, current understanding of relative permeability is wrong for coal systems and predictions based on it are misleading. Relative permeability is currently carried over from conventional gas reservoirs as a function of the degree of water saturation only. This misunders ....Relative Permeability in Coal. This project aims to deliver a better model for coal relative permeability to improve the management of coal seam gas reservoirs. Coal relative permeability is a key factor in reservoir models; however, current understanding of relative permeability is wrong for coal systems and predictions based on it are misleading. Relative permeability is currently carried over from conventional gas reservoirs as a function of the degree of water saturation only. This misunderstands the physical differences between coal and other rocks as gas reservoirs, fails to recognise the determinants of coal relative permeability, and misrepresents the flow system. This project seeks to provide a phenomenologically-based understanding and functional relationship for coal-relative permeability based on the principles than govern physical flow interactions.Read moreRead less