Oil And Gas: National Coordination - Seismic And Other Issues
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$426,973.59
Summary
The commercial fishing industry is under intense pressure from the O&G sector (exploration, seismic surveys, deployment of gear and now decommissioning of gear), jeopardising commercial fishing access rights, commercial fishing sustainability and potential commercial fishing resource impacts (such as Bass Strait scallop mortality) and overarching impacts on the broader marine environment (such as plankton mortality) for many fisheries.
The O&G industry also seeks relevant science to u ....The commercial fishing industry is under intense pressure from the O&G sector (exploration, seismic surveys, deployment of gear and now decommissioning of gear), jeopardising commercial fishing access rights, commercial fishing sustainability and potential commercial fishing resource impacts (such as Bass Strait scallop mortality) and overarching impacts on the broader marine environment (such as plankton mortality) for many fisheries.
The O&G industry also seeks relevant science to use within their environment plan submissions to offer the best ALARP practices regarding their interactions with the commercial fishing sector and the commercial fishing resource.
There is an urgent need for a national role coordinating O&G / commercial fishing specific R&D needs, seeking and updating available material and identifying gaps in the science with all materials to be available via a publicly accessible portal. Benefits for commercial fishers, O&G, eNGOs, students and the broader community.
Primary focus seismic activities plus other relevant science.
Current O&G / commercial fishing industry engagement is done in isolation with an inconsistent use of research (relevant or otherwise), inconsistent process, lack of uniformity of overarching messaging, lack of access to current and appropriate research and the duplication of work across all states.
Objectives: 1. Deliver a publicly accessible portal - a "one stop shop" for seismic research bibliographies, case studies and other relevant commercial fishing O&G information etc. 2. Deliver ongoing identification and qualification of relevant research papers and reference cases including annotated summaries to ensure relevance for ready and easy access by the commercial fishing sector, O&G and the broader community. 3. Deliver a set number of supported research applications relevant to the effects of oil and gas activities on commercial fishing / commercial fishing stocks etc, i.e. gap analysis and prioritisation. 4. Deliver a "best practice" document for commercial fishing representative bodies to use as a strong base for environment plan submissions. 5. Deliver a "best practice" document for commercial fishing representative bodies to use as a strong base and consistent process for fee-for-service environment plan consultation. Read moreRead less
Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. This project aims to design distillation and absorption columns, perhaps the most important unit operations in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, and whose optimization is integral to overall performance of any LNG plant. This project will use 3D printers to rapidly prototype concepts of columns and their internals, and test them using flow characterization ....Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. This project aims to design distillation and absorption columns, perhaps the most important unit operations in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, and whose optimization is integral to overall performance of any LNG plant. This project will use 3D printers to rapidly prototype concepts of columns and their internals, and test them using flow characterization tools and numerical models. The final outcome of the project will be a set of designs of the columns, which should be more efficient, safer and cheaper to operate, and have smaller physical and environmental footprints, thus helping the Australian LNG industry to stay globally competitive.Read moreRead less
Removing Seabirds From The Otterboard Trawler Danger Zone.
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
The conservation status of seabirds means that any level of interaction is of serious concern. The only known mitigation strategy known to reduce interactions to almost zero is to not discard biological material (discards and offal) while fishing gear is in the water. In late March AFMA advised industry that vessels fishing south of 38.00 (the Victorian southern coast) would not be able to discard biological material while fishing. This regulation is to be rolled out in two phases starting ....The conservation status of seabirds means that any level of interaction is of serious concern. The only known mitigation strategy known to reduce interactions to almost zero is to not discard biological material (discards and offal) while fishing gear is in the water. In late March AFMA advised industry that vessels fishing south of 38.00 (the Victorian southern coast) would not be able to discard biological material while fishing. This regulation is to be rolled out in two phases starting executed in July and September 2019. AFMA contend that this will reduce catches on impacted (southern) trawlers by 20% but SETFIA believes that this might be up to 40%. AFMA and SETFIA agree that the SETF's revenue will reduce by $6-12m from $40m to $28-34m in its current form. Additional AFMA management costs associated with seabird mitigation will bring 2019/20 levies to $3m which will be 9-11% of revenue. SETFIA and AFMA have agreed that in principle exemptions can be granted IF vessels can prove that seabirds are no longer attracted to the area where trawl warps enter the water (the "danger" zone). The purpose of this urgent application is to seek emergency funding to fund innovation around how trawl vessels might stop birds from entering this danger zone. Without a solution it is likely that given the increase in levies of $0.5-1.0m and decrease in revenue, many southern trawl vessel operations will cease to be profitable and leave the fishery. Further, small New Zealand trawlers are not subject to any seabird mitigations; this fleet is the main competitor to SETF sales. As vessels exit the fishery the levy base will be spread across remaining vessels and the fishery may be reach a tipping point in which it collapses. The SETF is the major supplier of local finfish to the Sydney and Melbourne fish markets and it the largest Commonwealth managed finfish fishery in Australia. Objectives: 1. Development of strategies to remove seabirds from the danger zone (between trawl warps and the water), i.e. achieve exemptions from the "no biological material discharge while fishing" rule 2. When successful distribute these strategies to other trawl fishers allowing them to duplicate them where possible Read moreRead less
Long-term Analysis Of The Sea-state In The Great Australian Bight
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$21,261.00
Summary
The Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Association (ASBTIA) operates in shelf and offshore waters of the Great Australian Bight (GAB). In recognition of the exposed nature of the offshore GAB environment, ASBTIA have requested information to better understand the climatology of the physical meteorological and oceanographic conditions which contribute to the ‘sea-state’ and ocean conditions at a deep water petroleum permit location in the Great Australian Bight.
This project will provide ....The Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Association (ASBTIA) operates in shelf and offshore waters of the Great Australian Bight (GAB). In recognition of the exposed nature of the offshore GAB environment, ASBTIA have requested information to better understand the climatology of the physical meteorological and oceanographic conditions which contribute to the ‘sea-state’ and ocean conditions at a deep water petroleum permit location in the Great Australian Bight.
This project will provide the oceanographic services required to identify, access and analyse long-time series of relevant met/ocean parameters and statistically describe their climatology in order to better understand the ‘sea state’ characteristics of the GAB and how they compare with sites located within other international oil production regions.
Objectives: 1. To understand the exposure and sea-state of the Great Australian Bight relative to three other regions of interest. 3. For each location and parameter (detailed in methods), provide a summary of monthly sea-state climatology described by the mean, variance, frequency and intensity. 3. For each location and parameter, determine of the probability of extreme events to occur at fixed return periods. Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Research Hubs - Grant ID: IH130200012
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,748,358.00
Summary
ARC Research Hub for Basin GEodyNamics and Evolution of SedImentary Systems (GENESIS). ARC Research Hub for Basin GEodyNamics and Evolution of SedImentary Systems (GENESIS). This Research Hub aims to undertake simultaneous modelling of deep Earth and surface processes, spanning basin scales to individual sediment grains. The Hub will develop and apply cutting-edge basin simulation approaches to transform the seeding and testing of basin exploration models, extending their viability to complex, ....ARC Research Hub for Basin GEodyNamics and Evolution of SedImentary Systems (GENESIS). ARC Research Hub for Basin GEodyNamics and Evolution of SedImentary Systems (GENESIS). This Research Hub aims to undertake simultaneous modelling of deep Earth and surface processes, spanning basin scales to individual sediment grains. The Hub will develop and apply cutting-edge basin simulation approaches to transform the seeding and testing of basin exploration models, extending their viability to complex, inaccessible remote and deep exploration targets. The Hub will fuse multidimensional data into five dimensional basin models (space and time, with uncertainty estimates) by coupling the evolution of mantle flow, crustal deformation, erosion and sedimentary processes, achieving a quantum leap in basin modelling and petroleum systems analysis.Read moreRead less
Australia possesses significant coastal and near coastal oil and gas reserves within its continental shelf. It follows that oil and gas exploration (especially seismic) is also significant; especially in the the Bass Strait, Great Australian Bight and North-Western 'Kimberley' areas of Australia. Up until recently, the offshore regulatory framework which includes assessment of effects on the aquatic environment and engagement with other users has been somewhat nebulous and Offshore Industry driv ....Australia possesses significant coastal and near coastal oil and gas reserves within its continental shelf. It follows that oil and gas exploration (especially seismic) is also significant; especially in the the Bass Strait, Great Australian Bight and North-Western 'Kimberley' areas of Australia. Up until recently, the offshore regulatory framework which includes assessment of effects on the aquatic environment and engagement with other users has been somewhat nebulous and Offshore Industry driven, with the development of aquatic environmental benchmarks being based on the same process as offshore OH&S and butressed by disputed sometimes irrelevant science. Seismic expoloration in recent years has seen increased interaction between different aquatic ecosystems and marine users, resulting in a "contact" situation that was initially calamitous; but which has resulted in significant investment in Marine biological R&D, an increase in the deployment of the precautionary principle and marine environmental policy innovation.
Johnathon Davey (SIV) and Aaron Irving (NAC) will deliver a presentation that will draw on a number of aquatic environmental effects research project where Australia's fishing sectors were or are driving, policy innovations that we assisted in driving or supporting and case studies including the pearling Industry story, to provide a snapshot of the exciting work being undertaken in Australia currently in the marine environmental space with regard to the effects of seismic surveying and the ability for different users to play together successfully.
Objectives: 1. TO discuss issues relating to fisheries interactions in the marine environment Read moreRead less
Mechanisms of nucleation with special emphasis on gas hydrates. Successful recovery of natural gas from hydrate reservoirs, flow assurance in natural gas pipelines, prevention of undesirable dissociation of methane hydrates in deep ocean sediments, sequestration of carbon dioxide and high density gas storage, all depend on timely formation and dissociation of gas hydrates. Controlled extraction of methane hydrates from, and simultaneous sequestration of carbon dioxide to, deep ocean sediments ha ....Mechanisms of nucleation with special emphasis on gas hydrates. Successful recovery of natural gas from hydrate reservoirs, flow assurance in natural gas pipelines, prevention of undesirable dissociation of methane hydrates in deep ocean sediments, sequestration of carbon dioxide and high density gas storage, all depend on timely formation and dissociation of gas hydrates. Controlled extraction of methane hydrates from, and simultaneous sequestration of carbon dioxide to, deep ocean sediments have been considered to be the 'next big thing' in energy and environment sectors. Sequestration of carbon dioxide is necessary not only for reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere but also to stabilise the sediments once methane is extracted.Read moreRead less
Pore scale characterisation of the wettability of petroleum reservoir core material: Towards optimised recovery of hydrocarbon reserves. In most oil reservoirs more than 50% of original oil in place remains unrecovered. A major factor contributing to suboptimal recovery is insufficient knowledge of the rock wettability. Even a small improvement in recovery will have substantial economic benefit. The proposed project aims to characterise wettability in hydrocarbon bearing rocks using advanced 3D ....Pore scale characterisation of the wettability of petroleum reservoir core material: Towards optimised recovery of hydrocarbon reserves. In most oil reservoirs more than 50% of original oil in place remains unrecovered. A major factor contributing to suboptimal recovery is insufficient knowledge of the rock wettability. Even a small improvement in recovery will have substantial economic benefit. The proposed project aims to characterise wettability in hydrocarbon bearing rocks using advanced 3D imaging hardware and understand implications to oil displacement and recovery via state-of-the-art computational tools. Scientifically, this will be a leading edge research achievement enhancing Australian competitiveness in petroleum engineering research and will help Australia become a world leader in the export-oriented petroleum research services industry.Read moreRead less
Exploring deep Australia: 3-D imaging of the lithosphere beneath south-east Australia using multiple high density seismic arrays. The successful completion of this project will significantly improve our knowledge of the seismic structure of the Australian lithosphere, and hence improve our understanding of how the Australian continent came to be formed. In addition, the tomographic imaging methods that will be developed and applied to the individual and combined seismic arrays have a direct rele ....Exploring deep Australia: 3-D imaging of the lithosphere beneath south-east Australia using multiple high density seismic arrays. The successful completion of this project will significantly improve our knowledge of the seismic structure of the Australian lithosphere, and hence improve our understanding of how the Australian continent came to be formed. In addition, the tomographic imaging methods that will be developed and applied to the individual and combined seismic arrays have a direct relevance to the seismic imaging techniques used by the exploration industry. Finally, the creation of a combined dataset comprising records from ~300 stations will help keep Australia at the leading edge of observational seismology, as other countries (e.g. U.S.) begin to deploy very large seismic arrays.Read moreRead less
Large-scale three dimensional deformation of the lithosphere by subduction and mantle flow. We will be modelling of the dynamics of the Earth's crust and shallow lithosphere in response to the huge stresses created by plate motions. For Australia these stresses are transmitted from the distant plate boundaries, but they have a direct controlling influence on the evolution of the petroleum rich basins of Australia. These basins have reached maturity; further exploration will be in deep water wher ....Large-scale three dimensional deformation of the lithosphere by subduction and mantle flow. We will be modelling of the dynamics of the Earth's crust and shallow lithosphere in response to the huge stresses created by plate motions. For Australia these stresses are transmitted from the distant plate boundaries, but they have a direct controlling influence on the evolution of the petroleum rich basins of Australia. These basins have reached maturity; further exploration will be in deep water where geophysical prospecting methods are unreliable. Model-driven "exploration geodynamics" methods such as those we are developing will be needed to support traditional exploration techniques in these areas.Read moreRead less