Shell joins industry majors Woodside and Chevron - with research members University of Western Australia, Curtin University and CSIRO - in the alliance, which was established in 2003.
The WA ERA supports the state and federal governments' aims of increasing the local benefits from the oil and gas industry through research.
The new Shell alliance will build on WA ERA partners' relationships with Shell, including the Shell chair in offshore engineering partnership with the UWA's Energy and Minerals Institute, the Curtin challenger program and carbon capture and storage research with the CSIRO.
WA ERA chair David Agostini said Shell's addition to the research was particularly beneficial given the oil major's "extraordinary" Prelude FLNG project which "showcases a great opportunity for WA to be a global leader in floating and offshore systems and we hope to build on the great research already underway".
Shell Australia country chair Andrew Smith said collaboration and research were vital in ensuring Australia continued to build its offshore capacity.
"This partnership provides a strong foundation to facilitate new research projects with UWA, Curtin and CSIRO that can provide solutions to local issues associated with long-term, remote, offshore operations," he said.
