Australian Resources Research Centre ARRC 2004-05 Annual Report table of contents FOREWORD . Alan Carpenter EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . David Agostini RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS . MINERALS AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION . Computational Geoscience for Predictive Discovery Exploration Through Cover Discovery Technologies Petroleum Geochemistry PETROLEUM RESERVOIR DEFINITION AND PERFORMANCE . Reservoir Characterisation Geophysics DRILLING AND WELL PERFORMANCE . Drilling Production Platform-free Fields GAS AND ENVIRONMENT . CO2 Sequestration Gas Processing MAJOR COLLABORATIVE VENTURES . INDUSTRY CLIENTS. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION . FINANCIAL REPORT . ARRC ADVISORY COMMITTEE . MINISTER’Stableminister’s of contents foreword FOREWORD The Perth-based Australian Resources Research Centre (ARRC) continues to make significant contributions to Western Australia’s technological capabilities in the booming mineral and petroleum sectors. The WA home to CSIRO Petroleum Resources and CSIRO Exploration and Mining, also houses four Co-operative Research Centres - Predictive Mineral Discovery, Greenhouse Gas Technologies, Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration and the Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing. With its other occupants, including Curtin University of Technology departments and the Interactive Virtual Environments Centre (iVEC), ARRC is well placed to continue to facilitate and enhance collaborative research in the Western Australian resources sector. The Western Australian Energy Research Alliance (WAERA), an initiative of ARRC, was formed in 2003 between Curtin University of Technology, The University of Western Australia and CSIRO and has further built upon the research expertise offered at the Centre. Woodside Energy, an initial industry sponsor to WAERA, has contributed to significant growth in ARRC’s international oil and gas research and development. This research was further enhanced in April 2005 when a new research alliance, the Western Australian Alliance for Advanced Energy Solutions, was announced between Chevron and WAERA. This latest alliance will undertake petroleum industry research, technology development, education and training projects. It will provide for the development of multiple research projects with an investment target by Chevron of up to $5 million per year. Such collaboration and cooperation is strongly supported by the Western Australian Government. Involvement with external research groups in 2004-05 saw the production and publication of state-of-the-art mineral maps. These studies are crucial to the resources sector, having the potential to target new areas for exploration. I look forward to the continued success of ARRC and congratulate its staff on another year of dedication to making Western Australia an international hub of mineral and petroleum research excellence. Alan Carpenter MLA Minister for State Development EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The research being carried out at ARRC continues to address the technical challenges faced by the mining and energy sectors in Western Australia. This Centre was created to establish a knowledge node capable of attracting research capability that would add value to the State’s substantial resources. The work at ARRC spans a considerable number of technical disciplines, all of which are important to the future of the mining and petroleum sectors in this State. In this report the lead researchers summarise the projects they and their colleagues are pursuing. Success in these has the potential to provide to the resource industries in Western Australia a competitive advantage which will ensure their longer term viability. The State’s mining sector faces strong international competitive pressure and depends heavily on its leading edge technology to meet the challenge. Remaining ahead of the pack requires continuous technological improvement in identifying, recovering and processing minerals. Maintaining this leading position is possible only through the kind of work carried out here at ARRC. A similar challenge faces the petroleum sector. Resource prospectivity is not ranked as highly as some other places in the world, particularly where oil is concerned. Those reserves identified to date have most often been gas, and this has mainly been at remote sites. Overcoming the development hurdles of this ‘stranded gas’ is important to WA in addressing its energy supply security. Greater success at bringing those resources to the surface will also assist in reducing the national balance of payments burden. Much of the ARRC research in the petroleum sector addresses those challenges and contributes to maximising the value of the State’s reserves. In addition, some of the work currently underway focuses on environmental issues, including CO2 emissions. The ARRC initiative to form WAERA, together with its University partners, has helped to attract further government support. It has also boosted the capability of researchers attracting greater patronage from the petroleum industry, which is of particular importance to this State. This is likely to have ongoing long term benefits for ARRC, and its partners, as the Centre achieves critical mass and further develops its reputation for quality research. The investment in ARRC by both the State and CSIRO has created an institution which has already contributed to the performance of the resource sector. ARRC is well positioned to build on this and to continue to add value to the considerable mineral and energy endowment of this State by contributing to its technological leadership position. David Agostini Chairman, Advisory Committee. research highlights MINERALS AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION Yilgarn Laterite Geochemistry Atlas Many parts of Australia lack the materials (such as stream Computational Geoscience for Predictive Discovery sediments) used for large scale geochemical mapping. CSIRO in collaboration with Geological Survey of Western Australia has SEEGrid begun trialing the utility of iron-rich laterite for geochemical Researchers completed an AusIndustry funded demonstrator mapping of the western Yilgarn Craton, to indicate new areas project for the Solid Earth and Environmental Sciences for exploration and to identify potential environmental issues. (SEE) Grid architecture in 2004-05. SEEGrid is a computer During 2004-05, field sampling was completed in the southwest platform enabling geoscience knowledge and data from all state quadrant of the Yilgarn Craton. Some 2,000 samples were selected jurisdictions, including from State Geological Surveys and for analysis from field and existing collections. Preliminary Geoscience Australia, to be seamlessly available to the whole of results were presented at the September 2005 meeting of the the country. It enables people to have live access and to be able to International Geochemical Exploration Society. The digital dataset query the data from any jurisdiction – an Australian first in the for the South West Quadrant and some interpretative maps were delivery of data in the geoscience knowledge domain. SEEGrid published in 2005. is part of the national Australian Partnership for Advanced Salinity Mapping Computing Grid program which is building a national grid infrastructure to give Australian researchers seamless access to In this half-way year (2004-05) of its second term, CRC LEME computational and data resources. researchers have developed new geophysical technologies to model the dynamics of saline groundwater flow to assist salinity mitigation in New Reactive Transport Tool the Riverland area of the Murray River in South Australia. Water- Substantial progress was made in the development of a reactive borne and heli-borne electromagnetic systems have been developed to transport (chemical modelling) tool in 2004-05 to facilitate the pinpoint saline groundwater discharges into the Murray River. They prediction of alteration and mineralisation in time and space. have helped to identify preferred areas for irrigation on riverine plains This tool is able to run stably, on quite complex problems, over to minimise those discharges. geological time periods in complex meshes. Thus, a sample Integrated geoscientific approaches have also enabled the construction problem with 60 minerals and soluble species on an irregular of three-dimensional groundwater flow models in the Lower Balonne mesh, consisting of 4000 mesh elements, has been run for a model River in the headward region of the Murray Darling Basin. time of one million years, overnight. Spectroscopic Techniques to Determine the Mineralogical Exploration Through Cover Structure of Gold Nuggets New research in 2004-05 BiotaE: Bio-geochemistry to Target Plants to ‘see through’ Cover on gold, occurring as large CSIRO researchers, through the Co-operative Research Centre masses (nuggets), is revealing for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC their internal structure in a LEME), have found that analysis of the roots, bark and twigs of way not realised by most in the Mulga tree gives clear and reproducible chemical signatures of the geological sciences. With gold and base-metal deposits - especially under cemented hardpan. the invaluable assistance of, This breakthrough research stems from work over several Western and collaboration with WA Australian base-metal and gold deposits, covered by more than 20 prospector Mark Creasy, metres of transported regolith. This major research advance, with CSIRO has been able to the registered name ‘BiotaE’, can detect buried mineralisation cut gold nuggets in half and where no other soil or partial digest geochemical