AUSTRALIAN PETROLEUM RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: AN EXAMPLE OF PROBLEM-DRIVEN GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The Australian petroleum exploration research program is customer-driven and reflects the balance between the need for the petroleum industry to reduce exploration risk in the short term and the government need to improve the perception of prospectivity in the longer term. Higher prospectivity will lead to greater exploration investment and competition, whereas risk-reduction will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the exploration industry. Thus the objectives of the primary customers may be significantly different, with government intent on increasing the amount of investment and competition between explorers, whereas industry is intent on keeping expenditure to a minimum and maintaining competitive advantage. Despite the differences, collaboration between all groups involved in exploration and exploration-related research in Australia is essential to solve the range of exploration problems and generate new paradigms. Collaborative research ventures are most successful when new ideas stimulate explorer and researcher alike to focus resources on the key questions despite factors such as competitive advantage. Government geoscience researchers must play a significant role in generating and marketing new concepts to help maintain Australia's supply of domestic petroleum products.

The scale of the petroleum research undertaken, and the degree of collaboration between industry and research groups in Australia, is remarkable. There is a productive balance between groups developing and applying new technology and those undertaking regional geological and petroleum systems research. This balance has been reached because of the long-term commitment by the Australian Government, via legislation and funding, to ensure the preservation of exploration data in national geoscience database systems, and that basic and applied research at all scales, from basins to wells, is undertaken in support of petroleum exploration and development.

Despite the success of a number of collaborative research projects, research and development resources are still under-utilised by the Australian petroleum industry. Government research agencies must develop a higher marketing profile to ensure that the utilisation of the resources is at a maximum.