A 3D printing technology for metal that can be used in the operations is among the oil and gas projects to share in $1.8 million in new National Energy Resources Australia funding.
The new technique, being developed with technology firm SPEE3D, Charles Darwin University and industry partner Inpex, can operate around 1000 times the speed of conventional 3D printing at a fraction of the cost.
It is said to have the potential to revolutionise industrial activities in remote areas by allowing onsite metal part production.
"The technology will enable operating environments to fabricate necessary parts on site and limit costly delays associated with downtimes that can be in the order of tens of millions of dollars," NERA said.
It is among seven applications that received new co-funding from NERA's $15.6 million Project Fund, upon the formalising of contracts, and is said to align with the organisation's Sector Competitiveness Plan 10 year roadmap for the national upstream energy sector.
NERA chief executive Miranda Taylor said the new projects supported the organisation's goals.
"Projects that receive NERA funding are selected to deliver results on a national scale and have sector-wide impact, assisting the energy resources sector unlock a potential $10 billion in value that NERA has identified," Taylor said.
She said the projects would aid in ensuring Australia's global competitiveness by adapting to the changing global and domestic energy market and accelerating technological change through innovation and the improved transfer of knowledge and technology.
The seven new projects bring the total number of projects NERA is delivering across Australia to 32 and the number of project partners directly involved to more than 80.
Other projects to receive funding were a collaboration between CSIRO, the University of Western Australia and industry partners including AWE and Whitebark Energy to develop systems to monitor water, soil, atmospheric and seismic conditions to measure the impact of past and future oil and gas activities in the northern Perth Basin.
From this, a publicly-available scientific database will be established to provide reliable baseline methane data to enable ongoing monitoring.
"The project will lead to better informed decisions about the use of water resources in the area and provide the community and regulators with the means to make informed decisions about oil and gas activities in the Perth Basin," NERA said.
Another project to increase understanding of the Great Artesian Basin and how it relates to resource development project will be led by the University of Queensland and bring together a team of independent reviewers and contributors including Australia Pacific LNG, Santos and Arrow Energy.
An effort to reduce hydrate risk in subsea jumpers connecting to larger manifolds and pipelines will be once again be led by the University of WA and take in oil and gas partners including Chevron, Total E&P UK, Woodside and OneSubsea.
A virtual operating environment project led by Quadrant Energy and bringing together Curtin University Innovation Centre, Flicq, Optika and AWS will develop and install a novel integrated system to provide early notice of changes in plant operating conditions such as leaks or rotating equipment faults.
Origin Energy and the University of Sydney will develop a machine learning-based sub-surface geological model and an Australia-wide project to reduce the assessment burden on exploration companies associated with new survey activities will take in partners including BP, Quadrant, Caltex, CRC Care and CSIRO.
