Origin is tapping Australia's best minds to optimise CSG drilling, determine well pressure without a gauge and even improve driver safety among its Queensland operations.

 

Energy News reported last week that Origin would open operational datasets off the back of the challenges it will bring to a 54-hour hackathon run by Unearthed from this Friday to Sunday at Brisbane's River City Labs tech hub.

 

However, Energy News can now reveal that Origin, which has already installed artificial intelligence technology on its CSG wells this month, is seeking more than just operational improvements, but safety innovation on the road with the solutions it hopes will be unveiled at the hackathon.

 

Hackathon participants will be tasked with making driving safer by leveraging existing data and devices, among other challenges. 

 

They were told at last week's briefing that Origin employees drive about 13 million kilometres every year in the context of the APLNG project and related operations, and the project assets stretch over about 300km by 270km.

 

This large geographical expanse emphasises the fact that driving is the largest risk faced by Origin workers on a daily basis, as they operate light and heavy vehicles and buses.

 

"Protecting the health and safety of workers and the community is a key priority for Origin Energy," Origin graduate drilling and completions engineer Alexander Malone told the hackathon participants.

 

For this reason most vehicles including both contractors' and sub-contractors' rentals, are equipped with an in-vehicle monitoring system (IVMS) which records various driving performance indicators including the vehicle location, speed, seat belt use and 2WD/4WD status - in the case of 4WD they are compulsory on all unsealed roads under Origin policy.

 

The IVMS system also records braking and acceleration forces to detect harsh driving and pitch to detect potential roll-overs.

 

The IVMS also has an emergency feature enabling the occupants to raise help if needed.

 

The objective of the hackathon challenge is to utilise the IVMS datasets, including a list of recent vehicle-related incidents, to improve road safety outcomes.

 

Origin innovation portfolio manager Sylvain Josserand also told the pre-hackathon briefing in Brisbane that drilling time and costs, well quality and operational safety defined operational success.

 

Origin wanted the participants to provide drilling personnel with real-time feedback on drilling performance and well quality, and identify which controllable drilling parameters could be limiting drilling performance.

 

Origin will provide four datasets for 105 wells for that challenge.

 

‘Pason data' details drilling parameters used and measured as the well was drilled; ‘WellView data' summarises drilling performance in terms of phase duration; logging data includes the measured downhole properties; and formation data describes the points at which new formations were penetrated during drilling.

 

Spelling out the second challenge around well pressure level detection, Josserand said the key was to know pressure and/or water level at the bottom of the well, which is useful in maximising well performance in its operating life and production.

 

The challenge for the hackathon participants is to utilise all the live production data and knowledge of the installed equipment on a well to determine the bottom hole flowing pressure or water level without the use of a downhole gauge.

 

"The advantage of reducing the bottom hole pressure or fluid level is that it has a direct impact/increase on the gas production from each well," Josserand said.

 

Origin will give participants example production data of wells with downhole gauges over 12 months, along with well design information, to undertake the task.

 

The hackathon participants and their teams will own 100% of the intellectual property created across this weekend.