bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Safety leadership—Weatherford Asia Pacific
Authors: Raine John , Massy Robert
Published: August 2017

This paper will explain the steps that Weatherford Asia Pacific took to change a safety performance that had remained static for the preceding five years. Weatherford Asia Pacific has in place five key result areas (KRA):

HSE performance.
Financial performance.
Operational performance.
Growth.
People and resources.
The vice president of Weatherford Asia Pacific, Mr. Alistair Geddes, made a decision to personally involve himself in the improvement of the key performance indicators for KRA 1. Believing that leadership was the key to improvement, he set about developing an internal safety leadership training course—this was done alongside the regional learning and development manager Mr. Robert Massy. This approach was unique for a variety of reasons:

It was spearheaded by the region’s vice president who not only assisted in the preparation of the slides, but personally delivered five sessions in a variety of countries in the region.
It was linked to the Weatherford International’s five core behaviors, thus linking safety leadership to other corporate initiatives.
It required each leader to complete a personal safety pledge card detailing the activities that they were going to undertake for that performance year.
Completion of their pledges is mandatory and linked to performance review.
It was pushed further down the organisation by the general managers of each Geomarket.
There have been some very positive indicators that point to the success of this approach. For the first five months of the year, Weatherford Asia Pacific remained recordable incident free (though that situation has now changed). An easy solution would have been to bring in an external training provider to deliver an established training course. This was not viewed as the preferred option as the strength of this approach comes from the person who is delivering the message.
Smashing myths and delivering value—a repeatable approach to sustainable development
Authors: Fleming Nicholas , Cooper Susanne
Published: August 2017

Organisations that develop and operate capital assets, including public and private infrastructure, face an increasingly challenging task. A large range of factors needs to be addressed to develop and operate an asset successfully during its economic life. These factors include changing temperature and climate extremes, heightened social expectations, fast global communications that heighten visibility and transparency, new regulations and pricing regimes, and economic values being placed on what were once intangibles (like biodiversity). Leading organisations recognise this as a challenge to design, deliver and operate smarter, more sustainable and cost effective solutions. What is clear is that many organisations are struggling to achieve this. How to bridge the gap between business policies for sustainable development and practice is the central question. The common perceptions prevail that sustainability is ‘just a green issue’, will ‘delay my project’ and cost more. Yet in practice, the opposite is often true. This paper uses real project examples to demonstrate how integrated, smart design processes can simultaneously de-risk assets, save money and deliver better social and environmental outcomes.
Factors influencing fractures networks within Permian shale intervals in the Cooper Basin, South Australia
Authors: Abul Khair Hani , Backé Guillaume , King Rosalind , Holford Simon , Tingay Mark , Cooke Dennis , Hand Martin
Published: August 2017

The future success of both enhanced (engineered) geothermal systems and shale gas production is reliant on the development of reservoir stimulation strategies that suit the local geo-mechanical conditions of the prospects. The orientation and nature of the in-situ stress field and pre-existing natural fracture networks in the reservoir are among the critical parameters that will control the quality of the stimulation program.
This study provides a detailed investigation into the nature and origin of natural fractures in the area covered by the Moomba–Big Lake 3D seismic survey, in the southwest termination of the Nappamerri Trough of the Cooper Basin. These fractures are imaged by both borehole image logs and complex multi-traces seismic attributes (e.g. dip-steered most positive curvature and dip-steered similarity), are pervasive throughout the cube, and exhibit a relatively consistent northwest–southeast orientation. Horizon extraction of the seismic attributes reveal a strong variation in the spatial distribution of the fractures.
In the acreage of interest, fracture density is at its highest in the vicinity of faults and on top of tight antiforms. This study also suggests a good correlation between high fracture density and high gamma ray values. The correlation between high fracture density and shale content is somewhat counterintuitive, as shale is expected to have a higher tensile and compressive strengths at shallow depths and typically contain fewer fractures (Lin, 1983). At large depths, however—and due to sandstone diagenesis and cementation—shale has lower tensile and compressive strength than sandstone and is expected to be more fractured (Lin, 1983). A similar correlation has been noted in other Australian Basins (e.g. Northern Perth Basin). Diagenetic effects, pore pressure, stiffness, variations in tensile versus compressive strength of the shale and the sandstone may explain this disparity.
Seismic analysis of igneous systems in sedimentary basins and their impacts on hydrocarbon prospectivity: examples from the southern Australian margin
Authors: Holford Simon , Schofield Nick , MacDonald Justin , Duddy Ian , Green Paul
Published: August 2017

The increasing availability of 3D seismic data from sedimentary basins at volcanic and non-volcanic continental margins has provided fundamental new insights into both the storage and transport of magma in the continental crust. As global hydrocarbon exploration increasingly focuses on passive margin basins with evidence for past intrusive and extrusive igneous activity, constraining the distribution, timing and pathways of magmatism in these basins is essential to reduce exploration risk. Producing and prospective Australian passive margin basins where igneous systems have been identified include the Bight, Otway, Bass, Gippsland and Sorell basins of the southern margin. This paper reviews both the impacts of volcanic activity on sedimentary basin hydrocarbon prospectivity (e.g. advective heating, reservoir compartmentalisation and diagenesis), and the styles, distribution and timing of late Cretaceous–Recent extrusive and intrusive igneous activity along basins of the southern Australian margin, providing illustrative examples based on 2D and 3D seismic reflection data.
Double-section, non-retrievable casing drilling technique
Authors: Won Keith , Tan Ming Zo , Utamain I Made Budi
Published: August 2017

With the continuous surging in daily rental rates of oilfield exploration rigs, Casing while Drilling technology—which provides operators with an alternative drilling solution for a reduction in drilling flat-time and increased drilling operation efficiency—has appeared to be a standard part of drilling engineers’ toolkit in the well-planning process. Significant cost savings generated by Casing while Drilling have contributed to this technique being widely deployed on top-hole string installations on exploration and appraisal wells in the southeast Asia region.
The double-section casing drilling technique has gained increasing popularity among operators in recent years; however, this technique development has been hamstrung by limited casing bit selections. An improved design casing bit has been highly anticipated in the industry to reduce this technique’s complexity of drilling process.
Finding an equilibrium between durability and drill-out capability features for a casing bit has been a major challenge for bit designers. The increasing prospect and demand for a double-section casing drilling technique, however, has yielded the development of the casing bit design to a wider portfolio, inclusive of a more robust PDC (polycrystalline diamond compact) cutter-based drillable casing bit.
The introduction of the new robust but drillable PDC cutter-based casing bit has broadened the Casing while Drilling application. The double-section casing drilling technique without the need for an additional conventional clean-out trip has become a strong contender to be part of drilling engineers’ next toolkit in delivering enhanced drilling performance and increasing operational efficiencies.
This paper will introduce the first case history of the successful planning and implementation of the double-section casing drilling technique—particularly emphasising its optimised drilling performance and ease of drill-out without the need for a specialised drill-out bit.
Regulatory nirvana for low-permeability gas reservoir development
Authors: Goldstein Barry , Malavazos Michael , Hayter Belinda , Coda James , Jarosz Michael , Wickham Alexandra , Cockshell David , Zabrowarny Joe
Published: August 2017

‘Trusted land access is both the first factor and the final outcome of a virtuous exploration and production life-cycle’ (Goldstein et al, 2007).
Governments are under pressure to deploy trusted regulatory frameworks that enable profitable and environmentally sustainable development of unconventional gas resources for matters including, but not limited to, fracture stimulation operations. Nirvana regulation will entail:
attractive licence tenure;
regulatory certainty and efficiency without taint of capture;
regulators and licensees with trustworthy capabilities (competence and capacity);
effective (informative) stakeholder consultation well-ahead of land access;
public access to details of risks and reliable research to reduce key uncertainties, and to back-up risk management strategies so the basis for regulation is contestable anytime, everywhere;
timely notice of entry with sufficient operational details to effectively inform stakeholders;
potentially affected people and organisations who can object to land access without support for vexatious objections;
fair and expeditious dispute resolution processes;
fair compensation to affected land-users for costs, losses, and deprivation due to operations;
risks that are reduced to low or as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) while also meeting community expectations for net outcomes;
licensees who monitor and report on the efficacy of their risk management processes, while the regulator probes the same;
regulators who can prevent and stop operations, require restitution, levy fines and cancel licences; and,
industry compliance records, which are made public so the efficacy of regulation is transparent.
This paper will describe how these principles are deployed in SA where:

24 unconventional gas play-trends are being explored, each with giant gas potential;
hundreds of wells have been safely hydraulically fracture stimulated to enhance flow rates from both petroleum and geothermal reservoirs, and in doing so, enable economic development; and,
since implementing SA’s Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000, more than 11,000 notices of entry for petroleum operations have led to just one court action, and that was to establish legal precedent that geophysical surveys can extend outside a licence to attain full-fold control in a licence.
The introduction of new energy development technologies is inevitable, so regulatory nirvana will remain an aspiration. Regulation for compatible, multiple-use of land in Australia is undertaken with community ownership of subsurface resources in mind. SA aspires to achieve regulatory nirvana for the upstream petroleum sector. Expeditious, welcomed access to land for compatible, multiple uses is the metric for performance, and leading practice is based on the principle that trust is the most valuable lead factor and lag outcome in sustaining welcomed land access for resource exploration, development and production.
Top seal bypass risk due to fracture systems, nearshore/onshore Gippsland Basin
Authors: Ciftci Bozkurt , Langhi Laurent , Giger Silvio , Strand Julian , Goldie-Divko Louise , Miranda John , O'Brien Geoffrey
Published: August 2017

The extensional architecture of the Gippsland Basin was modified by a phase of contractional deformation during the Oligocene—Pleistocene postdating the main subsidence phase of the basin. This deformation caused local inversion and folding, which modified the depocentre geometry and controlled deformation of the syn-kinematic regional top-seal—the Lakes Entrance Formation. Accordingly, there is spatial variation of deformation intensity and lithofacies distribution, the latter of which possibly affected the strain accommodation behaviour of the Lakes Entrance Formation. These factors are critical and locally detrimental to seal capacity.
In this study, the volume of shale distribution of the Lakes Entrance Formation was modelled and various parameters of the seismic-scale faults were computed, including shale gouge ratio, slip tendency and dilation tendency. Sub-seismic deformation was captured by strain and curvature attributes at the Latrobe unconformity, which carries the most intense imprint of the deformation phase. These parameters were correlated to known hydrocarbon seepage and leakage indicators in the basin, which could be related either to: (i) localised deformation along fault zones; or, (ii) to distributed deformation separated from the fault zones. There is generally a good match between the anomalous values of the computed parameters and the location of leakage indicators. For fault-related localised deformation zones, the match of the parameters ranks in the following order: shale gouge ratio (95%), strain (84%), curvature (84%) and slip tendency (74%). By combining these four parameters, a fault-related leakage assessment factor (FLAF) was defined and mapped across the study area. Match ratio of the parameters used to capture distributed deformation separated from the fault zones are ranked in the following order: curvature (100%), strain (100%) and volume of shale (83%). These parameters were also combined to define an ‘other’ leakages assessment factor (OLAF) and mapped across the study area. FLAF and OLAF maps are consistent with known leakage/seepage indicators in the basin and are indicative of additional areas with potential risk for top seal bypass. These risk maps provide useful input to CO2 storage and hydrocarbon exploration efforts in the basin.
Effect of liquid invasion damage and supercharging on wireline formation tester measurements in tight gas reservoirs
Authors: Andrews Joshua , Bahrami Hassan , Rezaee Reza , Reza Hamid , Mehmood Sultan , Salemi Hossein
Published: August 2017

Wireline formation testing and measurement of true formation pressure can provide essential knowledge about the reservoir dynamic characteristics. In tight formations, a reliable determination of pressure and mobility gradients is challenging because of the tight nature of formation rock. Due to the very low reservoir permeability, the mud cake across wellbore is often ineffective in preventing filtrate invasion, thus causing the measured pressure to be higher than actual formation pressure as a result of supercharging effect.
Wireline formation testing measurements are also influenced by the effects of filtrate invasion and capillary pressure, as the measured pressure is pressure of drilling fluid filtrate, the continuous phase present in the invaded region around wellbore. As a result, the measured pressure might be different to true formation pressure. This effect is more noticeable in tight gas reservoirs due to capillary pressure effect.
This paper looks into estimation of true formation pressure and evaluates the effect of filtrate invasion damage and supercharging on wireline formation tester measurements in tight gas reservoirs. Numerical simulation approach is used to build the reservoir model based on data acquired from a tight gas reservoir. The model undergoes water injection followed by gas production from different testing points along the wellbore, and the corresponding pressure gradients are plotted to check for pressure matching with that of the formation fluid in the virgin region. The results indicate the significant effects of supercharging, reservoir characteristics, capillary pressure and liquid invasion damage on wireline formation pressure measurements in tight gas reservoirs.
Integrated production modelling of the Wheatstone-Iago fields: boon or bane?
Authors: Afuape Gbenga , Regan Myles , May Ronald , Roewer Vernon , Chung Anton , Silpngarmlers Nuntawan
Published: August 2017

Applying integrated production modelling (IPM) for decision making in the oil and gas industry has proliferated rapidly, evidenced by the amount of published information about successful applications of this approach. A reason for its popularity is to mitigate the risk of over(under)investment, which is driving asset teams toward jettisoning the practice of using fixed THP to account for backpressure effects or to use the limited surface network options available in most numerical reservoir simulators.
This extended abstract describes the modelling of an offshore gas development by coupling multiple full-field, numerical reservoir simulation models with a shared surface network model. Such an approach enabled subsurface elements of the production system to be linked directly to surface elements (subsea and platform) yielding a fully coupled IPM. Key development decisions were tested and justified in a technically rigorous and economically robust manner.
These decisions included the phasing of development wells, compression requirements and flow balancing in the pipeline system to maintain specified gas delivery rates. Experience from this approach has shown traditional reservoir engineering techniques can still yield the same outcome as an IPM with comparable accuracy—for some development decisions such as using a creaming curve and fixed THP to determine optimum well count; nevertheless, using simple methods to account for backpressure effects may not allow the same broad-based integration of design requirements needed at the design and engineering stage of large-scale projects.
The PowerPoint presentation is not available to APPEA.
Why partner with a major oil and gas company for unconventional resources ventures in Australia?
Authors: Sloan Garth , Courme Bruno
Published: August 2017

With the increased activity in exploiting unconventional resources (CSG, shale gas, and shale oil) during the past few years in Australia, it has become increasingly common to see partnerships develop between small- and mid-cap Australian companies and major companies from the international oil and gas industry.
Unconventional plays are usually large in areal extent and complex to interpret and develop; it becomes a daunting task for the smaller partner to progress alone. Some obscure benefits of this relationship can help the smaller Australian partner. The obvious advantages brought to the table by the major companies:

Finance to fund projects and to give them credibility.
Project management skills: critical skills are expensive and hard to find.
Complete range of competencies in exploration, development, midstream, marketing, and product manufacturing.
Existing business relationships: long-term supplier relationships and global purchasing power.
Familiarity and experience of working in unconventional reservoirs.
The obscure benefits that the major companies bring to the table:

A highly trained unconventional resources team who know what data to gather and how to gather and interpret it correctly.
Proprietary laboratories with highly trained personnel and advanced equipment.
Large research and development teams who study technology and methodology changes.
Well-vetted HSE programs with qualified teams.
A public relations team to deal with public acceptance, education, and communications.
The combined benefits are highly beneficial to the project.
Using overseas labour as part of a project workforce—integration, not segregation
Authors: Barton Chris
Published: August 2017

The resources boom in Australia presents an unprecedented challenge to industry participants to find the skilled and semi-skilled labour they will need for projects, particularly in the construction phase, during the next few years. Wage pressures and critical labour shortages are major concerns for project owners, principal contractors, and other industry participants. Using temporary overseas labour is one option for alleviating these concerns; however, it brings its own challenges such as additional compliance obligations and the practical problems in integrating overseas workers into the workforce.
Employers of temporary overseas labour will have ongoing sponsorship and access obligations that the Department of Immigration will scrutinise. Terms and conditions of employment, for example, must match those provided to Australian employees performing the same work. Employers must ensure their ongoing compliance with workplace relations and occupational health and safety laws as they apply to overseas workers.
Training efforts must be directed to ensuring the transfer of skills from overseas workers to Australians where possible. These efforts must also be directed at Australians to take up employment opportunities and reduce the dependency on overseas labour across time. The integration of overseas workers to enable them to participate effectively in the workforce requires planning and proactive management.
This extended abstract addresses the scope of the compliance obligations and the integration strategies to avoid the legal and industrial problems that will inevitably arise if overseas workers are segregated or isolated from the Australian workforce.
Labour and productivity: exploring alternative solutions
Authors: Drake-Brockman Allan , White Daniel
Published: August 2017

A serious skills shortage and increasing wage rates with no apparent increase in productivity is facing Australia’s oil and gas industry. The measures announced in the 2011–12 Federal Budget on 10 May do not appear to address the skills shortage crisis and may affect the viability of some projects.This extended abstract proposes some solutions to alleviate the existing skills shortages facing offshore resource projects. It also discusses some of the structural inefficiencies in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) that is contributing to these issues.Under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme, the Federal Budget included an increase of skilled migration from 10,000–16,000 places in 2011–12. This is in contrast to the calls from Western Australia’s resources industry suggesting about 33,000 workers will be needed by the end of this year. The major changes to Australian labour laws brought by the FW Act is said to have resulted in uncertainty about some projects.Evidence of the shift to a collective (enterprise) bargaining framework based on delivering productivity increases is not yet available. An enhanced role for union officials seems to have resulted in an increase in union power and union influence in enterprise bargaining. This may be a reason for wage blow-outs in the oil and gas industry.
Petroleum Resource Rent Tax: an update on recent developments
Authors: Crisp Ian
Published: August 2017

Although the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) has been operating for longer than 20 years, the past few years have seen a significant amount of activity on this front:

The announcement by the Australian government, on 2 July 2010, to expand the existing PRRTto include onshore oil and gas projects, including coal seam gas projects and the North West Shelf Project.
The release of three ATO draft taxation rulings in 2010 about the pre-conditions for the deductibility of project expenditure, excluded expenditure (including indirect administration expenses) and the treatment of expenditure paid under ’sub-contractor’ arrangements.
The courts’ decisions about the treatment of contract payments and the application of the PRRT taxing point.
This extended abstract explores these developments as they apply to existing and new PRRT taxpayers, and identify the key issues that oil and gas companies will need to be aware of as they continue or commence compliance with the PRRT. This extended abstract also explores the impacts of these developments on transaction structuring, due diligence, financial modelling and fiscal certainty in the broader context of asset portfolios.
Surface monitoring using radar satellite images to measure ground deformation: applied for coal seam gas production areas to comply with regulatory requirements
Authors: Payàs Blanca , Morris Ryan , Arnaud Alain , Albiol David , Duro Javier
Published: August 2017

This extended abstract introduces radar satellite reservoir monitoring technology (InSAR) and its main applications for monitoring CSG production areas and its surroundings. InSAR technology detects ground motion with millimetric precision: measurements are taken remotely from space. It is a highly efficient tool for ground-motion measurement, even in large and remote areas, where land-based measurement techniques are inconvenient and costly.
Altamira Information has developed an advanced differential interferometric chain (Stable Point Network SPN) that can process radar images, achieving millimetric measurements. Ground-motion monitoring with radar images is an efficient technology to comply with regulatory requirements, arising from CSG activities: regulatory requirements specify the obligation for CSG operators to monitor subsidence starting with a baseline then continue with ongoing monitoring to quantify deformation at the land surface within the proponent’s tenures.
InSAR is the only technology able to measure ground deformation in the past since archive radar images are available. These measurements in the past allow establishing baselines to determine vulnerable zones affected by subsidence (before CSG production) or subsidence induced by CSG or other activities.
Monitoring requirements for the present and future can be covered with high-resolution satellites—which can be programmed—with precise measurement results (up 1 mm). Case studies are presented from historical data processed from the Surat and southern Bowen Basin CSG developments; these cases include the investigation of both CSG and non-CSG induced surface deformations.
Allocation of greenhouse gas emissions to products and joint-venture partners
Authors: Nelson Mathew
Published: August 2017

The oil and gas industry in Australia consists of a range of complicated joint venture (JV) and processing arrangements. With a future price on carbon in the Clean Energy Future Legislation Package, parties are keen to understand their carbon liabilities where they have interests (both operated and non-operated), and the extent to which a price on carbon can be passed on to customers.
Many oil and gas companies have been reporting greenhouse gas emissions from their facilities to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency since 2009 using the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System framework. Subsequently, numerous companies from the sector have developed greenhouse gas reporting systems linking into existing oil and gas production allocation systems. These companies are now turning their attention to using this information to allocate greenhouse gas emissions from their facilities to specific oil and gas sales products, as well as to JV partners.
This extended abstract, which includes a case study, explores these developments and discusses the key considerations when allocating greenhouse gas emissions to specific products and JV partners. Also explored are the following questions:

What assumptions need to be made at the facility level for emissions associated with extracting, processing and refining specific products ready for sale? How robust and defensible are these assumptions?
How do you build these assumptions into a system or model that allocates emissions to different products?
What processes do you then put in place to allocate emissions to specific JV partners, and what information will be reported to them and what quality and assurance processes need to be in place to provide comfort to your JV partners of the robustness of the numbers?
How will the costs associated with carbon be allocated?
Using social media to navigate land access issues
Authors: Samuel Jeremy , Teh-White Katherine
Published: August 2017

Activist groups and others opposed to drilling operations have used social media with great effect to influence community perceptions of CSG and other mining operations. When faced with the reality of the level of community outrage apparent in social media, many industry executives throw their hands up in despair and conclude they cannot influence the discussion. Others decide that the best approach is to run broad-based advertising and PR campaigns that present only the industry's case–after all, this approach worked well for the mining industry in opposing the mining tax. Neither of these approaches actually addresses or mitigates the outrage that exists in the community or provides a hope of resolving the underlying issues. This extended abstract presents a staged approach to social media engagement using land access as an exemplar, which builds on more than a decade of risk communications experience and applies this to creating engagement and influence in the social media sphere. The approach has five stages. These stages involve:

Listening–to key issues and influencers;
Understanding–the expectations and outrage factors that emerge;
Following–tracking how the conversations are evolving;
Engaging–starting to participate in the conversations and only then;
Influencing–having built a presence and a community you may start to shape the conversations.

You may not always like what you read and hear in social media, but if you participate in a considered way you will get an accurate picture of community expectations and earn the right to help shape the conversations.
Designing the world's largest semi-submersible central processing facility
Authors: Cahuzac Claude
Published: August 2017

What are the key design considerations driving the successful delivery of the world’s largest semi-submersible Central Processing Facility (CPF), to be installed at the Ichthys gas field in the Browse Basin, 200 km offshore North West Australia? Extreme cyclonic weather conditions, separating condensate from the gas stream, accommodating 150 personnel, and the sheer size of the gas processing unit at 110,000 tonnes, have created unprecedented challenges for the Ichthys design team.
This extended abstract explores the design and planned construction of this massive piece of equipment. The CPF, measuring 110 m x 110 m, will be anchored to the seabed in about 250 m of water using 28 mooring chains. During the 40-year life of the project, the unit will collect gas from a network of up to 50 subsea production wells drilled into reservoirs 4,000–4,500 m beneath the seabed. From the CPF, condensate will be sent to a Floating Production Storage Offtake (FPSO) vessel moored nearby.
The gas will be compressed and sent by an 885-km subsea pipeline to Darwin for processing into LNG, LPG and residual condensate. INPEX with its Ichthys joint venturer, Total, will be shipping 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of LPG a year, as well as 100,000 barrels of condensate a day at peak. Successful delivery of the Ichthys Project will ensure INPEX achieves its goal of becoming the operator of a major LNG facility, while helping reach its target of producing 800,000 boe/d by 2020.
Gaining and maintaining social licence to operate
Authors: Cochrane Kylie
Published: August 2017

Social licence can be defined as the permission by community and key stakeholders underpinning the statutory approval and monitoring of major projects and operations. Due to the rapid growth of the Australian power and energy sector, expansion of exploration activities and increase in the number of stakeholders affected, the need to integrate the social investment dimension with return on investment (ROI) decisions has become an issue critical to efficient program delivery.
Public opinion about power projects mainly hinges on how the construction work will affect the environment and community of the local area and how risky the power project is considered once in place. An integrated community and social investment (CSI) program that encourages transparent, socially constructive, environmentally robust and sustainable practices can reduce risk and improve profitability. CSI is presented as a framework for not just encouraging sustainable development, but also mitigating social risks that can have a profound impact on a project’s acceptance, funding and rate of return.
This extended abstract documents the business drivers for project-level social investment, CSI lessons learned across multiple project teams within Australia during the past 12 years, and insights into engaging communities in power and energy industry initiatives. The ROI modelling is applied to social licence thinking. Drawing from a series of project vignettes across the water, mining and power and energy sectors, the author discusses some new legal precedents and a framework for approval-centric communication and business planning. This extended abstract provides guidance for companies looking to obtain, maintain or enhance their social licence to operate.
Shaping the Cooper Basin's 21st century renaissance
Authors: Alexander Elinor , Sansome Alan
Published: August 2017

The Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE) SA has been successfully using competitive acreage releases to manage highly prospective Cooper Basin acreage since 1998. The expiry of long-term exploration licenses enabled the most significant structured release of onshore Australian acreage in the industry’s history—it has generated:

32 petroleum exploration licences (PELs) from ~70,000 km2 acreage;
$432 million in guaranteed work program bids;
70 new field discoveries;
$107.6 million royalties and $1.4 billion sales;and,
increased gas supply-side competition.
Cooper acreage turnover has also changed the makeup of Australia’s onshore exploration industry from numerous company-making discoveries. Since 1998, 10 acreage releases have been staged, enabled by the Petroleum Act 2000 (now the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000), conjunctive agreements with Native Title claimants, access to multiple-use Innamincka and Strzelecki Regional Reserves, and transparent application and bid assessment processes.
Despite delays, most recently due to flooding, all but three of the original PELs are in their second term and relinquished acreage has been incorporated into subsequent releases. All work-program variations have been kept above the second bid score (except one, where the second ranked bidder was consulted and approved the change) preserving bidding system integrity.
DMITRE is planning new Cooper Basin acreage releases while contemplating acreage management options for emerging unconventional plays. Industry input to map the best possible future for the SA Cooper Basin continues to be welcomed.
Evaluating Australian unconventional gas: use and misuse of North American analogues
Authors: Jordan Colin , Barker Geoff , Gunn Bruce
Published: August 2017

Evaluation of Australia’s emerging unconventional gas sector (particularly shale gas, basin centered and tight gas) relies heavily on the use of North American analogues because of the lack of production history in Australian plays. While the use of analogues can be useful, no two shale or tight gas plays are identical so the use of analogues can also lead to significant pitfalls that need to be understood to be avoided. Production performance and recoverable hydrocarbons are strongly coupled to completion technology (far more than a conventional oil or gas project), and the successful implementation of technology requires an intimate knowledge of both reservoir petrophysics and geomechanics, not to mention a well-developed topside supply chain. This paper discusses the application of analogues to major Australian unconventional plays in the Cooper, Canning, and Perth basins, presents a case history from the Canning Basin, and provides guidance on the adjustments needed to ensure realistic predictions of recovery and well performance.
Coatings for corrosion under insulation (CUI) protection—accelerated testing methodology
Authors: Wilds Neil
Published: August 2017

Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is a serious issue in the oil and gas industry, with failures often occurring without warning and having devastating effect. When expensive redesign is not possible or practical, operators have a number of options open to them to mitigate the risk of CUI; these include the use of various protective coatings or thermally sprayed metals. Despite a number of technologies presently available, the industry is yet to establish an accepted laboratory test method for the performance benchmarking of products. This has, in the past, damaged confidence in some solutions and hampered the selection and further development of CUI coatings. As a result, the subject of accelerated laboratory testing for CUI coatings is now receiving significant attention across the industry with joint industry programs proposed in both Europe and North America.
This paper will examine state-of-the-art accelerated CUI testing, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of the existing methods available. It will then offer a detailed description of a test method that has been in use since 2004, testing more than 300 specimens and assessing a wide range of coating technologies. The reproducibility of the test program will be established by the presentation of a range of data including results obtained from a third-party test house. The third-party results will then be correlated with a seven-year case study from an end user perspective provided by Santos, a major Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, from experiences at their Port Bonython facility in SA.
Demystifying science—communication of complex science to reduce community fear of industry
Authors: Fenton Richard
Published: August 2017

There are many claims made by those in opposition to CSG that the science behind this industry is not yet known, despite the fact that comprehensive environmental impact statements have been prepared and approved by both the state and federal governments, for three of the four major Queensland CSG-LNG projects.
Those in opposition to the CSG industry, whether individuals or organised groups (the anti-CSG lobby), use self-generated online, newsprint and TV media to promote highly emotive messages to gain broader community support for their desire to stop the development of the CSG industry.
Many of the claims made by the anti-CSG lobby are based on anecdotal evidence, untested hypothesis and incomplete scientific analysis, and are more specifically designed to evoke fear of the industry. Seldom have anti-CSG groups provided a true and balanced view of the likelihood of the risk, as to allow critical thinking or true debate of their claims.
This paper describes the impact of the conformational bias, whereby anti-CSG groups have created their own interpretation of the science associated with CSG extraction. This interpretation of the science has been built into to the community’s understanding of the industry. The major issue with confirmatory bias is: the more evidence on the safety of the industry that the government and industry provides to the community, the more defiant the anti-CSG groups become. This is referred to in the paper as the backfire effect.
This paper also looks at the methods used by the anti-CSG lobby to convey the risk associated with the industry, and makes the recommendation that to counteract the deliberately exaggerated consequences of the risks presented, the industry needs to respond with a balanced argument based on the risks’ likelihood—demonstrating through simple scientific language—that in most cases, the community should have a no rational reason to fear this growth and economically rewarding industry.
An assessment of different model-management techniques in history-matching problems for reservoir modelling
Authors: Sayyafzadeh Mohammad , Haghighi Manouchehr
Published: August 2017

History matching is a computationally expensive inverse problem. The computation costs are dominantly associated with the optimisation step. Fitness approximation (proxy-modelling) approaches are common methods for reducing computational costs where the time-consuming original fitness function is substituted with an undemanding function known as approximation function (proxy). Almost all of the applied fitness approximation methods in history-matching problems use a similar approach called uncontrolled fitness approximation. It has been corroborated that the uncontrolled fitness approximation approach may mislead the optimisation direction to a wrong optimum point. To prevent this error, it is endorsed that the original function should be utilised along with the approximation function during the optimisation process.
To make use of the original function efficiently, a model-management (evolution-control) technique should be applied. There are three different techniques: individual-based, population-based, and adaptive. By using each of these techniques, a controlled fitness approximation approach is assembled, which benefits from online learning. In the first two techniques, the number of original function evaluations in each evolution-control cycle is fixed and predefined, which may result in an inefficient model management. In the adaptive technique, the number is altered based on the fidelity of the approximation function. In this study, a specific adaptive technique is designed, based on heuristic fuzzy roles; then, for the first time, the applications of all the three techniques are investigated in history matching.
To deliver an assessment between the four approaches (the uncontrolled approach and three controlled approaches), a framework is developed in which ECLIPSE-E100 is coupled with MATLAB; and an artificial neural network, a genetic algorithm—with a customised crossover—and a Latin hypercube sampling strategy are used as the proxy model, optimiser, and experimental design method, respectively. History matching is carried out using each of the four approaches for the PUNQ-S3 reservoir model, while the same amount of computation time was allowed for each of the approaches. The outcomes demonstrate that the uncontrolled approach cannot deliver reliable results in comparison with the controlled approaches, and among the controlled approaches, the developed adaptive technique is more efficient.
Seismic stratigraphic relationships within a lowstand reservoir system: examples from the Barrow Group, Southern Exmouth Sub-Basin, NW Australia
Authors: O’Halloran Gerry , Hurren Chris , O’Hara Tim
Published: August 2017

The Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Eskdale and Macedon members of the lower Barrow Group comprise some of the main oil-bearing reservoirs in the Exmouth Sub-basin. These high quality sandstones form the reservoirs in the Stybarrow and Eskdale oil fields. Understanding the architecture of these deepwater successions is important in both exploration and development projects. This paper documents detailed stratigraphic relationships and depositional geometries as defined on high quality seismic data sets and associated well data.
An initial phase of lowstand deposition (Eskdale Member) is recorded by the development of two main canyon systems; the Eskdale and slightly younger Laverda canyons. These systems are remarkably well imaged on 3D seismic data, allowing for detailed definition of channel morphology and associated fill and spill facies. Channel complexes are up to 1 km-wide and 100 m-deep, and display evidence for multiple phases of erosion and in-channel aggradation. Overbank/spill facies are also identifiable, including crevasse lateral lobes and ‘chute’ channels. These canyon systems fed contemporaneous downdip basin floor fans that display a variety of classical fan morphologies and depositional elements including terminal lobes, fan pinchout edges, distributary channel systems and localised outflow facies. The distribution and morphology of the Eskdale and Laverda canyons and associated fan intervals can be related to topographic gradient changes within the basin (i.e. from shelf to slope to basin floor). These topographic changes are in turn a response to regional tectonism, in particular active rifting along basin margins.
An ensuing phase of less confined, shelf-slope turbidite deposition (Macedon Member) records late-stage lowstand processes. Detailed well and seismic control from the Stybarrow Field and surrounding areas has identified multicyclic sands recording deposition of stacked turbidite lobes. These lobe complexes are more laterally continuous than the canyon facies and are comprised of amalgamated sheet sands and lower-relief channel sands, and are generally between 15–25 m thick. In the greater Stybarrow area the original lobate geometries have been subsequently modified by a phase of late-stage erosion. Outcrop analogues for the Macedon Member can be seen in the lobe complexes from the Tanqua Fan intervals of the Karoo Basin, which are similar in both scale and morphology. These lobe complexes extend laterally for tens of kilometres with constituent individual lobes often displaying evidence for compensational depositional processes.
This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium 2013, which was held from 18–21 August 2013 in Perth, Australia.
probGRV: a workflow for geostatistical depth conversion and probabilistic assessment of gross rock volume
Authors: Squire Shane , Langston Sharon , Donley James
Published: August 2017

Understanding and estimating the probability of geological success (Pg) and original hydrocarbon-in-place (OHIP) are an integral part of the geoscientist’s role from exploration though to development. This paper presents a workflow developed at Santos for the systematic assessment of two key elements in this process: the probability of structural closure (Pcl); and, the estimation of the uncertainty of gross rock volume (GRV). There are two distinct parts to the workflow. Firstly, Kriging and sequential Gaussian simulation (SGS) are used in map-based, seismic time-to-depth conversion to generate multiple equi-probable depth maps (in the order of 1,000+ realisations). Numerous depth conversion methods are considered where appropriate. Secondly, every depth map realisation is validated for structural closure around a target location (e.g. a proposed or existing well). Primary outputs from the workflow include estimates of Pcl, and probability distributions of GRV and pool area for valid maps, which may then be used directly in estimating geological risk and OHIP. Secondary outputs from the workflow include basic statistics associated with depth conversion uncertainty, such as target depth prognosis and the distribution of the depth to lowest closing contour. The ultimate objective is to provide the interpreter with a greater appreciation of the range of possible outcomes given the uncertainty in structural geometry.
This workflow, named probGRV, has been designed and developed within Santos using commercially available geophysical software and in-house proprietary software. During the past few years, the workflow has been implemented on key assets at various stages of the prospect/field life cycle and in both pre- and post-drilling campaigns for audit purposes. Case studies from the Cook Field in the onshore Eromanga Basin and the Finucane South Field in the offshore Carnarvon Basin are shown to illustrate the methods and results.