As Australia transitions to renewable energy, there remains an urgent need to optimise existing gas production fields to meet growing global energy demand.

Technological advances in production, such as enhanced gas recovery (EGR) injection techniques, are making many production optimization projects more feasible across the country. However, these efforts face significant challenges, including high costs, technical complexity, environmental constraints, regulatory hurdles, reservoir variability, and safety risks.

Cameron Grant, Chief Commercial Officer at STRYDE, explains: “Although Australia’s onshore fields are significantly smaller compared to offshore basins, they still hold significant potential for the domestic and international gas market. Overcoming the challenges associated with EGR techniques requires financial prudence, careful planning, technical expertise and effective risk management to ensure the success and sustainability of enhanced gas recovery projects.

Obtaining a permit to work requires navigating complex regulatory frameworks set by the federal government, state or territory governments and industry authorities. This division of regulatory responsibilities can often lead to delays and uncertainty for energy projects. In addition, permits must take into account landowner interests, environmental and social concerns, requiring thorough environmental impact assessments and community consultations.

Addressing these challenges requires joint efforts from government agencies, developers, operators, supply chain stakeholders, environmental advocates and affected local communities. Therefore, it is essential to reach consensus to find viable solutions that prioritize environmental protection while enabling sustainable resource use.

Seismic data has therefore proven to be a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for making reservoir optimization decisions. Thanks to recent technological advances, companies can now obtain high-resolution images of the subsurface with minimal environmental impact and at a lower cost than previously imaginable.

“This is why Pad3D is making its debut in the Australian market,” begins Brendon Mitchell, Managing Director of seismic solutions company Oceania Geo.

“Using high quality seismic data to de-risk production optimisation is a no-brainer. It costs around A$100,000 to A$250,000 to acquire seismic data to de-risk a 3-5km² multi-well drilling platform, while horizontal drilling costs over US$2 million per well.

“Pad3D is a bespoke production enhancement solution from Oceania Geo, enabled by STRYDE’s cutting-edge seismic technology. The service provides high-resolution seismic data to identify production enhancement opportunities by rapidly delivering drill-ready subsurface imagery for time-critical drilling decisions.

“The solution uses soft seismic source and receiver technology that minimizes the environmental footprint and soil degradation. This is critical for obtaining your work permit and access to the land you want to survey.”

“At the heart of the new offering is the STRYDE Node™, the smallest and most cost-effective seismic sensor currently available on the market. This compact, wireless technology is specifically designed for use in any off-road environment, allowing companies to quickly survey areas with existing infrastructure while minimizing ground disturbance. This approach facilitates the creation of high-resolution subsurface imagery needed to make informed production optimization decisions,” added Grant.

Mitchell adds: “Until recently, seismic data was difficult to obtain due to sensitive environments restricted by heritage protection regulations or limited access to land, resulting in sparse coverage. This resulted in irregular and limited geometries and additional processing and interpretation difficulties.”

By deploying a larger number of receivers at a comparable cost to conventional surveys, it becomes possible to achieve denser seismic coverage with a smaller environmental footprint. This approach eliminates blind spots, speeds up the process and improves the accuracy of subsurface images. It offers the opportunity to map challenging shale, coal and sand layers under the complex operating and access conditions often found in Queensland’s coalbed gas fields and unconventional plays in other basins in Australia.

Pad3D was recently piloted by Oceania Geo in collaboration with STRYDE and Earth Signal Processing for Galilee Energy to demonstrate the feasibility of conducting small footprint 3D seismic surveys using more cost-effective and environmentally friendly technology for well planning and field optimization in Australia.

With a focus on delivering structural and stratigraphic assurance through 3D imaging, the project aimed for rapid execution to align with planning and pad development schedules whilst minimising environmental and heritage disturbance and utilising existing infrastructure. Reducing health, safety and environmental (HSE) risks was therefore paramount and this reduction was achieved through smaller teams, scaled equipment and reduced operational times.

The results speak for themselves:

• Field operations: The work was completed in seven days by a crew of six who put in 400 hours of work and there were no incidents.
• Vehicles: Every day two off-road vehicles, an ATV, a tractor and a Bobcat were on site.
• Receiver distance: 800+ STRYDE Nodes™ deployed per day with a two-person crew at 15m spacing. ⁻4935 Live Receiver Patch – 75m RL x 15m RP
• Source operations: Two weight drop source types were used – the WD1400 (which was specially developed by Oceania Geo) and the GPEG500, which was designed to provide excellent recordings in both shallow and deep areas. More than 800 source points were recorded per day per source at a spacing of 15 m. ⁻2415 source points – 150 m SL x 15 m SP
• Fast processing: a fast-track volume was delivered just seven days after the last node was removed (fast-track volumes are useful for identifying immediate drill targets, evaluating initial exploration results or making early project decisions. They provide a preliminary overview of the subsurface and can help accelerate exploration or development activities).

Mitchell concluded: “The final data resolution exceeded expectations, stayed comfortably within budget constraints, and successfully managed the intricacies of an innovative but technically complex basin design.

“Using STRYDE’s nodes for the Pad3D solution was critical to the implementation of this project. The success is evident in the results we achieved in the pilot project for Galilee Energy and we look forward to deploying the solution to help more companies maximize hydrocarbon recovery in their existing fields.

In addition to oil and gas production, STRYDE and Oceania Geo have also opened up new exploration opportunities for the renewable energy sector across Australia, including mining and geothermal energy.

Read the latest issue of OGV Energy magazine HERE

Published: 13-08-2024