Subsea Pipelines Collaboration Cluster Advancing Our Knowledge of Subsea Pipeline Technology to Support the Oil and Gas Industry
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WEALTH FROM OCEANS www.csiro.au Subsea Pipelines Collaboration Cluster Advancing our knowledge of subsea pipeline technology to support the oil and gas industry Final report 2 Executive summary 17 Putting the Cluster’s research into practice 4 Introduction to the Subsea Pipelines Cluster 21 Commissioning experimental equipment 6 Training the offshore for ongoing pipeline pipeline engineers testing in Australia of the future 28 Publications and 10 Scientific and dissemination engineering challenges 34 Key papers 12 Scientific outcomes of the Flagship 46 Awards Collaborative Cluster 48 Keynote presentations, invited lectures and papers 49 Hosting international conference ISFOG 50 The Partners 51 Flagship Collaboration fund 1 Executive summary Offshore subsea pipelines are used to export oil and gas from the field to platform and then from the platform to the mainland. As they are the sole conduit for the hydrocarbons their stability and integrity are of critical economic and environmental importance. More than 80 per cent of Australia’s gas resources exist in deep, remote, offshore areas and being able to realise the full potential of these remote resources relies on the development of economically viable transportation solutions. Technical solutions for Australia’s offshore pipelines must maintain structural integrity and continuous supply of products across hundreds of kilometres of seabed. Such technology is also vital to Australia achieving the vision of “platform free fields”, a CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship initiative. Platform free fields research investigates ways to replace traditional oil and gas platforms with subsea technologies for production of gas resources which may lie as far as 300 km offshore, at a depth greater than 1 km. To address the challenges of providing technical solutions to the Australian oil and gas industry, six universities and CSIRO’s Wealth from Ocean Flagship came together in 2008 to establish the Subsea Pipelines Collaboration Cluster. Its goal was to underpin the development of these hydrocarbon resources, by providing engineering solutions for the safe and economic design and operation of subsea pipelines in Australia’s offshore frontiers. This research Cluster was enabled by a $3.6 million grant through the CSIRO Flagship Collaboration Fund and in-kind contributions from the participating universities of $7.4 million. Bringing together an integrated and multi- disciplinary team has been fundamental to the success of the Cluster. The Cluster has resulted in significant advances in the understanding of subsea pipeline technology, 2 Subsea Pipeline Collaboration Cluster – final report including the development of state- The current boom in Australian oil of-the-art experimental equipment and gas has caused a skills shortage in to test pipeline attributes. key engineering fields. It is therefore a key achievement that this cluster Key achievements include establishing has also trained 41 offshore engineers new numerical models and software and researchers for the benefit of for analysing the stability of offshore the offshore oil and gas industry pipelines, novel methodologies for through its PhD and postdoctoral economic and safe pipeline design, programs. This will help underpin and the commissioning of world- the future success of engineering class experimental and pipeline in this area of national priority. Mark Cassidy testing facilities. These have resulted in specialist testing and consultancy The Cluster outcomes are helping to Leader services being available to the offshore build future research priorities in CSIRO, CSIRO Flagship Collaboration Cluster on Subsea Pipelines pipeline industry. The increased the Universities and with industry The University of Western Australia knowledge and understanding will partners in the areas of pipeline design contribute to CSIRO’s own research and installation in Australian calcareous in the areas of gas flow assurance soil conditions and in deep water, and production. They are also geohazard risk assessment, use of publically available with the Cluster automated underwater vehicles and in having published more than 160 developing the vision of platform free manuscripts in international journal fields in Australia. Future activities, such and conference proceedings. as interactive workshops, will build on this successful collaborative relationship. Results from the Cluster’s research has already been incorporated into the This report summarises the next generation of subsea natural gas achievements of the Subsea projects such as the A$43 billion Gorgon Pipeline Collaboration Cluster and Ian Cresswell project in north-west Western Australia its impact on the Australian and Acting Director that involves the development of the international oil and gas industries. CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship Greater Gorgon gas fields and a LNG plant on Barrow Island, near Karratha. Acting for clients BP, Chevron, Inpex and Woodside, testing facilities developed have also underpinned designs for Australia’s future pipelines to the Pluto, Wheatstone, Ichthys and Browse fields (off the north-west Western Australian coast) and in international projects offshore West Africa, Egypt and in the Caspian sea. Research in the cluster also formed part of a joint industry project sponsored by the six energy majors BHP Billiton Petroleum, BP, Chevron, Petrobras, Shell and Woodside, and administered by the Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Past CSIRO Wealth of Oceans Flagship Director Kate Wilson (right), CSIRO Energy Executive Australia (MERIWA Project M395). Bev Ronalds (centre) and UWA Vice Chancellor Alan Robson (left) at the Cluster launch 3 Introduction to the Subsea Pipelines Cluster Building a pipeline system to link an offshore oil and gas field to the mainland represents a huge capital investment. For example, in Australia the construction of the 42 inch 135 km pipeline for the Trunkline System Expansion Project (TSEP) on the North West Shelf in 2003/04 cost approximately A$800 million. Today, the cost per kilometre of current pipeline projects, including the Gorgon (water depth: 1350 m length: 65 and 140 km), Scarborough (depth: 900m length: 280km), Pluto (depth: 830m length: 180km) and Browse (depth: 600m length: 5, 24 and 400km) is estimated to exceed $4.5 million per kilometre. With over 2000km of pipelines under design in Australia, capital expenditure is expected to exceed $10 billion. With more than 80 per cent of resources which are considered CSIRO, Australian universities and other Australia’s gas resources exist in deep, stranded off our coast in deep water publicly funded research agencies. remote, offshore areas, our ability and at long distances to land. Under The Subsea Pipeline Collaboration to realise their full potential relies these conditions subsea pipelines are Cluster was initiated by the Wealth on the development of economically required to transport the gas over from Oceans Flagship to bring viable solutions to transport them. long distances to shore. Transporting together a diverse range of research hydrocarbons in extra long offshore Such technology is vital to Australia capabilities to deliver an in-depth pipelines poses many challenges that achieving the vision of Platform Free scientific understanding of the must be considered when designing Fields, a CSIRO Wealth from Oceans key parameters involved in subsea pipelines. These include stability of Flagship program. This research pipeline design, construction, long- pipeline structures over decades in investigates ways to replace traditional term operation and monitoring. strong currents, a shifting seabed and oil and gas platforms with subsea on steep seabed slopes. Assessment The three year program contributed technologies for production of gas and mitigation of potential geohazards, to CSIRO’s research program that aims such as submarine landslides, is also to work with industry to develop the critical for the safe routing of pipelines. science and technology to unlock new opportunities in the exploration and The Subsea Pipelines Collaboration development of Australia’s offshore Cluster was established to meet hydrocarbon resources. The $7.4 these challenges and to deliver million Cluster included $3.6 million science-based engineering solutions from the Flagship Collaboration Fund for the safe and economic design and $3.8 million in-kind contributions and operation of subsea pipelines from the participating universities. in Australia’s deepwater frontiers. Research has focused on ultralong The Subsea Pipeline Collaboration pipelines from deepwater to shore, a Cluster combined the research critical goal of Platform Free Fields. capabilities of The University of Western Australia, Curtin University The CSIRO Flagship Collaboration of Technology, The University of Fund enables the skills of the wider Queensland, Monash University, The Australian research community to University of Sydney, Flinders University be applied to the major national and CSIRO through the Wealth from challenges targeted by CSIRO’s National Oceans National Research Flagship. Research Flagship Program. As part of From a start of 17 Chief Investigators the the $480 million provided over seven cluster grew to eventually encompass years by the Australian Government 31 academic researchers and another to the National Research Flagships, 27 PhD and Masters students. $115 million was allocated specifically to enhance collaboration between 4 Subsea Pipeline Collaboration Cluster – final report CSIRO