David White Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems
Offshore (geotechnical) engineering
• Offshore pipelines
• Research techniques/tools
• Research questions
• Geomaterials science within COFS
• Wider offshore (geotechnical) engineering at COFS
• Potential links across faculty
• Research tools
• Common research ground
Australia’s offshore pipelines
Pipeline research techniques
Experimental
In situ Numerical
Pipeline research questions
Sleeper Pipeline
Alignment in operation
Remnant berm from hydrotest
As-laid alignment
Presenter
Presentation Notes
$4.4B impact on WA economy 0.25% reduction in national GDP during Q3 and Q4 of 2008
Pipeline research questions
Presenter
Presentation Notes
$4.4B impact on WA economy 0.25% reduction in national GDP during Q3 and Q4 of 2008
A new geotechnical design context
Conventional engineering – stable structures on
an intact seabed
Modern pipeline design – mobility and transformation
structure and seabed
Geomaterials science
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 10 20 30 40
Cur
rent
resi
stan
ce /
orig
inal
resi
stan
ce
Cycle number
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Res
idua
l stre
ss ra
tio, τ
res/σ
' no
Velocity (mm/s)
Numbers indicate cycle number
1
111
20
5
5
With consolidation intervals between cycles
Without consolidation intervals between cycles
Soil P (SILT)
Hardening Reconsolidation
Solid – fluid transformation
Example future WA developments
Cardoso & Oliviera 2010
Image courtesy of Woodside Energy Ltd
Image: Inpex / DMP annual review
Image: Shell
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Shown on the bottom left is an indicative schematic of the Browse onshore processing facilities, planned by Woodside, which would be located approximately 50 km north of the town of Broome. The Browse export pipeline route is approximately 350 km from a central processing facility located in 100 m water depth, plus 900 km of infield pipelines that extend into water depths of 590 m. The Ichthys field is located to the east of Browse, and is being developed by Inpex, the Japanese petroleum firm. The schematic shows a proposed floating facility which would be one of the largest of its type in the world and the first time such a floating facility is used in Australia. This floater would performing processing of the product, with condensate being offloaded to an adjacent storage tanker and the gas being exported via a 885 km long pipeline to a LNG plant located in Darwin, over the border in the Northern Territories. Estimates of the reserves at Browse and Ichthys are very similar, being 13.3 Tcf and 12.8 Tcf of gas respectively, and 360 and 527 million barrels of condensate respectively. The smaller Prelude field – of between 2-3 Tcf – is at the FEED stage of development and is operated by Shell. For this kind of smaller field, remote from shore, floating LNG plants can be an attractive development option since they eliminate the costs associated with land terminals and the associated pipelines and infrastructure. Shell's Prelude project could become the first floating LNG production project in the world. Shell have said that their FLNG facility will be approximately 480m long and 75m wide, with a fully-ballasted weight of 600,000 tonnes. For comparison, this is 50% longer and 20% wider than the largest FPSOs in the world, which are currently being deployed offshore West Africa. Unlike in West Africa, a floater offshore Australia is subjected to severe cyclones. Many FPSO’s offshore Australia are able to avoid cyclone loading by utilising their disconnectable turrets, but FLNG will not have this feature. So, not only will Australian’s FLNG vessels be the largest in the world, but they will be subjected to more arduous environmental loads than the previous largest vessels. Sources: DMP “Petroleum in Western Australia” April 2011 http://www.woodside.com.au/NR/rdonlyres/1BB56417-4E7E-457D-A076-03822C72B11D/0/DevelopmentOverviewAugust2010.pdf Hyundai / Daewoo re: FPSO’s for Clov and Usan
Related COFS research
Cardoso & Oliviera 2010
Image courtesy of Woodside Energy Ltd
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Shown on the bottom left is an indicative schematic of the Browse onshore processing facilities, planned by Woodside, which would be located approximately 50 km north of the town of Broome. The Browse export pipeline route is approximately 350 km from a central processing facility located in 100 m water depth, plus 900 km of infield pipelines that extend into water depths of 590 m. The Ichthys field is located to the east of Browse, and is being developed by Inpex, the Japanese petroleum firm. The schematic shows a proposed floating facility which would be one of the largest of its type in the world and the first time such a floating facility is used in Australia. This floater would performing processing of the product, with condensate being offloaded to an adjacent storage tanker and the gas being exported via a 885 km long pipeline to a LNG plant located in Darwin, over the border in the Northern Territories. Estimates of the reserves at Browse and Ichthys are very similar, being 13.3 Tcf and 12.8 Tcf of gas respectively, and 360 and 527 million barrels of condensate respectively. The smaller Prelude field – of between 2-3 Tcf – is at the FEED stage of development and is operated by Shell. For this kind of smaller field, remote from shore, floating LNG plants can be an attractive development option since they eliminate the costs associated with land terminals and the associated pipelines and infrastructure. Shell's Prelude project could become the first floating LNG production project in the world. Shell have said that their FLNG facility will be approximately 480m long and 75m wide, with a fully-ballasted weight of 600,000 tonnes. For comparison, this is 50% longer and 20% wider than the largest FPSOs in the world, which are currently being deployed offshore West Africa. Unlike in West Africa, a floater offshore Australia is subjected to severe cyclones. Many FPSO’s offshore Australia are able to avoid cyclone loading by utilising their disconnectable turrets, but FLNG will not have this feature. So, not only will Australian’s FLNG vessels be the largest in the world, but they will be subjected to more arduous environmental loads than the previous largest vessels. Sources: DMP “Petroleum in Western Australia” April 2011 http://www.woodside.com.au/NR/rdonlyres/1BB56417-4E7E-457D-A076-03822C72B11D/0/DevelopmentOverviewAugust2010.pdf Hyundai / Daewoo re: FPSO’s for Clov and Usan
Future plan: ARC Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering (-2017)
