A ustralias marine ecosystems Australia has a range of significant - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Energy security – environmental considerations

National planning

consultation, coordination, cooperation Deliverables: baseline knowledge, effective management; increasing efficiency of industry, pre-competitive data, reducing red/green tape

Australia’s marine ecosystems

• Australia has a range of significant & biodiverse

ecosystems

• Many overlap with

areas of high O&G prospectivity

• These are poorly documented

and their system dynamics and responses to impacts are even less well understood

Importance of Environmental Assessments & Monitoring

• At precompetitive stage – to identify environmental

sensitivities that might influence initial interest in leases

• During exploration & development – to assess risk
• f various activities on the environment
• Post- incident to detect environmental impacts and

monitor recovery

• Reliable, comprehensive environmental data is

critical to both industry and regulators

• Data on toxicity and thresholds essential to risk

assessments during permitting

Importance of Environmental Assessments & Monitoring

• Failure to compile adequate baselines

compromises our ability to detect impacts – a major issue for the Montara and Macondo spills

• Lack of definitive data on possible impacts can

lead to over-regulation through adoption of a higher precautionary approach

• Modelling (hydrodynamic and ecological) is a

vital tool but comprehensive validation is critical

Key Science Needs

• A national system of environmental baselines
• Ecotoxicity studies
• Fate & behaviour of released hydrocarbons
• Impacts of noise
• Improved prediction of impacts
• Data coordination, management & accessibility

National System of Environmental Baselines

• biological communities, benthic habitats, high

resolution hydrocarbon analysis, metocean data

• Inadequate baselines increase regulatory

uncertainty and ability to detect impacts

• Piecemeal accumulation of data for each lease is

inefficient, and less effective

• Coordination of data standards & sampling needed

across government and industry

• Strategic gap-filling rather than duplicated effort
• 1. A staged Implementation
• 2. Develop a single Regional Plan
• 3. Easy access to existing data
• 4. An continuous improvement approach
• 5. Joint participation with Industry
• 1. A staged Implementation
• 2. Develop a single Regional Plan
• 3. Easy access to existing data
• 4. An continuous improvement approach
• 5. Joint participation with Industry

Environmental Monitoring: Great Australian Bight

Collaborative Research Science Program, with CSIRO, BP and MISA

• Oceanography
• Open water (pelagic) ecosystem and

environmental drivers

• Sea floor (benthic) biodiversity
• Ecology of apex predators
• Petroleum geology and geochemistry
• Socio-economic analysis
• Integration and modelling

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BP GAB ss2013-RC02 Survey - Southern Surveyor

Oil Seeps

Environmental Monitoring: Northwest Australia

Collaborative Research: WAMSI Partners, Oil & Gas Industry

• Shell- Inpex OSMP
• PTTEP, Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Chevron

Ecotoxicity research

Must:

• be locally relevant (species, oil & condensate

types, discharges)

• cover molecular, physiological and whole
• rganism responses in lab & field
• include cumulative and multi-factor impacts

Response models for multiple stressors

Ultratrace metals analysis – achieving part per trillion detection limits

Regionally adjusted thresholds

Impacts of Noise

• Ongoing uncertainty on impacts,

especially for Marine mammals

• Initial research on seismic surveys

shows little impact on fish

• Need for studies on combined impacts
• Need to characterise local sound

environments and propagation characteristics

Improved Prediction of impacts

• Fate and behaviour of

spilled hydrocarbons

• Hydrodynamic and

dispersal modelling

• Improved metocean data
• Ecosystem models

incorporating experimental research

• Output as formal risk analysis

Data Management & Access

• Access to metadata from government & industry
• Data standards
• Data sharing within government, within industry,

between both

• Coordination of data management and access system
• Develop a national marine environmental decision

support system

• Develop skills and capacity in HPC, HPD , big data,

data storage

AODN IMOS/eMII NPEII IGEM eAtlas AODN IMOS/eMII NPEII IGEM eAtlas

Research Infrastructure: Vessels

RV Solander Coastal & Shelf, 35m, 10-12 Scientists RV Investigator Shelf & Open Ocean, 94m, 40 Scientists

SeaSim SeaSim:

Research Infrastructure: National Sea Simulator

• Multifactor, highly controlled

experiments

• Temperature
• Light (intensity, spectrum)
• Salinity
• CO2
• Diurnal, Seasonal variation

Time Horizon Energy Security - Questions Science outputs 5 years What are the linkages between seabed communities and environments and what do they tell us about offshore prospectivity? Complete three exemplars of high resolution seabed mapping for environmental and resource assessment. What are the long term effects of offshore exploration and production on marine organisms? Determine the effects of noise generated by exploration and development of resources on marine life. Establish ecotoxicology affects on marine life of hydrocarbons from known producing fields, and discoveries Develop HPC/HPD services to synthesise, analyse, and access regional seabed, subsea, and satellite data to assist Industry 10 years How can remote sensing technologies be developed to improve our understanding of offshore prospectivity? Complete seabed mapping of un-explored areas of the Australian Marine Jurisdiction Complete wave and wind energy profiles adjacent to existing and developing energy sinks (ports, cities) Develop and apply a robust methodology to rank Australia's

• ffshore geologic basins for energy resource assessment.

Establish a program to systematically and routinely assess fluid and gas seepages from the seafloor. How does the dynamic geological history of Australia affect the relative prospectivity of offshore sedimentary basins? Determine the hydrodynamic history of Australian offshore sedimentary basins to assess affects on productivity of conventional hydrocarbons and disposal of CO2 How resilient is the marine environment to resource development and unplanned incidents? Establish a monitoring program to assess exogenous noise in the marine environment. 20 years What are key indicators required to monitor and ensure sustainable development of energy resources? Complete environmental modelling for Australia's marine jurisdiction: remote monitoring of CO2 storage sites and performance of wave and wind platforms How can we apply HPC/HPD to better predict energy prospectivity and CO2 storage capacity to ensure long term energy security?

E n e r g y S e c u r i t y