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Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Towards 2030: transforming asset emissions in Australian production operations

Peter Carydias A * and Preben Nielsen B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Wood, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.

B Wood, Perth, WA, Australia.

* Correspondence to: peter.carydias@woodplc.com

The APPEA Journal 63 S361-S366 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22080
Accepted: 17 March 2023   Published: 11 May 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.

Abstract

Operators are building roadmaps to reduce emissions at an increasing rate because of initiatives such as the Australian Government’s Safeguard Mechanism and global draft proposals to make emissions from plants auditable. There are three main levers for integrated gas operators: (1) Optimising existing operations to improve efficiency. (2) Designing sustainable developments and modifications. (3) Rebalancing portfolios to lower carbon equivalent intensity assets. Large capital projects are typically proposed as responses to the second lever – such as carbon capture and electrification. However, operating assets hold pressing challenges to reduce ~10–20% of emissions and need to develop viable roadmaps. Through our work in Australian integrated gas industry, we found that the majority of CO2-e operational emissions reduction opportunities can be addressed by discrete improvement programmes on rotating reliability, process optimisation and methane leak reduction. We discuss how asset operators can drive their Operations, Energy Transition and Digital Functions to realise these significant CO2-e benefits on a scale of months by: (1) Developing a value-driven decarbonisation strategy for operations, identifying benefits in production, cost and emissions, front-loaded with high impact, rapid 20–30% reduction initiatives that can be realised in the next 1–2 years. (2) Implementing effective and auditable real-time monitoring of plant emissions direct from existing control systems, sensors and imaging techniques. (3) Deriving a programme of tech-enabled optimisation levers and bringing this into new designs for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen and electrification projects for maximum benefits.

Keywords: carbon capture and storage, carbon-intensive assets, CO2 equivalent emissions, discrete improvement programmes, electrification, emissions reduction, integrated gas operators, optimising existing operations, rebalancing portfolios, sustainable developments.

Peter Carydias leads growth of Wood’s digital solutions portfolio in asset performance. He works with global companies in energy and materials to improve asset performance and reduce emissions. He holds a BEng from Monash University, is a Chartered Engineer with IEAust and the IMechE (UK) and has an MBA from AGSM (Sydney).

Preben Nielsen is the Digital Transformation Global Lead for Wood with over 18 years of experience in the oil and gas, aerospace and mining industries. Preben graduated from the University of Western Australia with Bachelor’s degrees in Science (Physics and Applied Mathematics) and Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) and the University of California, Irvine with a Master of Science (Aerospace Engineering). His experience encompasses digital transformation strategy, technical change management, systems engineering, digital technology, corporate governance, business management and contract administration.


References

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