Why the wait? Shale gas exploration review and look ahead
David CloseOrigin Energy.
The APPEA Journal 55(2) 404-404 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ14039
Published: 2015
Abstract
Despite unconventional targets being recognised across many Australian sedimentary basins and the Energy Information Administration (EIA), estimating a technically recoverable shale gas resource of >400 tcf in Australia, there have been no definitive tests that prove that any of these potential plays will flow gas at commercial rates. There has, however, been a number of technical successes reported from both shale gas and basin-centred gas plays.
This extended abstract reviews select plays from both frontier and mature basins across Australia, including basins where Origin is actively exploring or appraising unconventional gas plays—the Perth, Cooper and Beetaloo basins. The technical challenges vary from play to play, but many of the above ground challenges are not play specific.
To advance the industry, Origin and other companies will have to demonstrate a resource sufficiency that is economic in a high cost environment like Australia, while maintaining a positive relationship with communities.
In its expansion into the NT, through its interest in the Beetaloo Basin, Origin has the benefit of 20 years’ experience dealing with complex stakeholders and environmental challenges through its CSG development projects in Queensland. This experience is invaluable in advising best practices for engaging with local communities, landholders, traditional owners, and regulatory and government bodies.
For the technically minded asset development teams charged with exploring unconventional plays in frontier basins, where stakeholders are unfamiliar with oil and gas development projects, new skills are required that need deep organisational support.
David is the exploration manager (onshore Australia) for Origin Energy in Brisbane, Australia. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and he has a BSc from the University of Tasmania. David has worked in Mexico, the US and Canada for Schlumberger and Apache Canada before joining Origin Energy in 2012. David has worked in a range of conventional and unconventional exploration roles, and has developed expertise in quantitative seismic interpretation and inversion, and unconventional resource exploration and evaluation. Member: Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Society of Economic Geologists, Canadian Society of Exploration Geologists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists. |
References
Cook, P., Beck, V., Brereton, D., Clark, R., Fisher, B., Kentish, S., Toomey, J., and Williams, J., 2013—Engineering energy: unconventional gas production. Report for the Australian Council of Learned Academies. Accessed December 2014. <http://acola.org.au/PDF/SAF06FINAL/ACOLA%20Engineering%20EnergyShale%20Gas%20Final%20Report%20Extract.pdf>.The Victorian Government, 2013—Gas Market Taskforce—Final Report and Recommendations. Accessed December 2014. <http://www.energyandresources.vic.gov.au/about-us/publications/Gas-Market-Taskforce-report>.
US Energy Information Administration, 2013—Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources: An Assessment of 137 Shale Formations in 41 Countries Outside the United States. Accessed December 2014. <http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/>.
