Australia’s shale industry – how we can become globally competitive

Abstract

Project delivery technology is changing and developing at a rapid rate, and Australia’s oil and gas industry could do a better job of embracing change and getting to the forefront of advanced digital technology applied to developing onshore gas resources – particularly to our vast undeveloped shale reserves. Our shale deposits are in remote parts of our country, so present significant challenges, especially in relation to geographical distance away from local and international markets. This paper will focus on the use of automation and standardisation in the engineering design process combined with project execution strategies to significantly reduce both schedule and cost in delivering surface infrastructure required to get our gas shale reserves to both domestic demand centres and export facilities. The traditional project delivery models that have served us well in the past need to be challenged and a new paradigm adopted. Standardisation of the compression and dehydration facilities in the US market has been developed over many years, resulting in efficient project delivery, and enabling reserves to be brought to market on a fast track basis. This paper will work through practices in the US and how they can be applied to Australia. Australian standards and industry practice defines how we design our gathering and pipeline networks. This paper will present a combination of construction strategies and automation of engineering design to optimise life cycle cost in remote regions where construction mobilisation and logistics is a significant factor combined with changing priorities as further reservoir data is obtained from exploration wells.