The challenge of finding and extracting enough hydrocarbons to meet
world demand is not getting any easier. It is not easy to find them,
work out what’s there, how to get to it and how to keep it flowing once
you have.
Meeting that challenge in a sustainable manner requires smart technology, systems and people.
Woodside’s oil and gas resources are located in remote, offshore
fields. They are in cyclonic environments, sea bed temperatures are very
low, pipelines are long and expensive and the available landfall
locations are expensive places to build large gas processing plants.
Every year we spend more than A$165 million in technology and innovation-related activities as part of everyday business.
In addition, Woodside invested about A$13 million in 2010 directly on our Strategic Technology Plan.
We identified 11 areas in which we could research, develop, improve
or invest in technology that could have a positive impact on Woodside’s
company’s financial performance, delivery of community benefits, and
reduction of environmental impacts.
Our focus was on LNG construction technologies, options for
developing remote deepwater fields, detailed knowledge of meteorological
and oceanographic (metocean) conditions, exploration and reservoir
characterisation methods.
The plan includes Woodside-specific projects undertaken by our own
staff, collaborative research with industry participants (large and
small) and direct funding of university research, professorial chairs
and other programs.
The innovation life cycle has three phases – discovery, development and deployment.