With the Browse joint venturers having decided to go with the FLNG option in September 2013 and Shell's Prelude well into development, Energy News can reveal that Woodside and Shell met with Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Total, ExxonMobil, Inpex, BHP Billiton and service companies including Intecsea, Lloyd's and Technip in Perth last June to define the challenges involved with floating systems.

The meeting was taking place as the oil world was waking up to the looming reality that commercialising deep water fields via FLNG may be cheaper than onshore, with the cost blow-outs seen in most onshore LNG developments in the world.

Chevron's Wheatstone project is still within its original budget estimate ($29 billion) and tracking to schedule with first gas planned for late 2016.

From the June meeting came several initiatives based around some unique conditions experienced across the north of Australia, particularly with currents, weather, metocean conditions and marine growth.

As ITF regional manager Australia Peter Brazier told Energy News: "They're regional challenges, but with global significance."

Last week's announcement by the Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) that it had secured Woodside, Chevron Australia, Shell Australia and Inpex to fund the development of new systems to improve tropical cyclone prediction, including the associated wave fields over the WA Shelf and surrounding waters, came out of a similar workshop in 2012.

Out of a June 2014 meeting came challenges around mooring integrity and marine growth.

"When you have FLNG large vessels out there they'll be stationary for 30-40 years," Brazier said.

"We're also looking at marine growth. If you're looking at big ships that can't go into dry dock to be cleaned, how are you going to limit marine growth and what are the challenges around that? We have started researching those challenges around floating systems."

The end result from all this will be reports and standards that will make inspection of mooring lines more accurate, involving safety and production, "so you don't have incidents or accidents where it affects people and production, and potentially the environment if there is a catastrophe".

While a lot of money poured into this kind of research in the Gulf of Mexico, which has had three floating platforms break loose because of mooring issues due to cyclones, local challenges require local research.

Momentum building

Energy News first revealed such plans for a ‘centre of excellence' - at least in theory - in a major Engineers Australia FLNG report last month, which also happened to be part of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's failed 2013 election pitch that such a centre be set up in Perth.

Turning around the negativity that surrounded FLNG last year - and more recently by WA Premier Colin Barnett who has made his support for Browse conditional on a commitment to an onshore supply base and domestic gas supply - EA said Australia's expertise lay not in FLNG construction but world-class R&D niche areas.

These include responses to local challenges like metocean conditions and remote operations as areas that WA can hone in on to capitalise on Prelude and Browse, when it happens.

Then there was yesterday's news that Petronas' vice-president and venture director LNG projects (domestic) Abdullah Karim told reporters that the first cargo from the world's first FLNG project, with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum, will be available in the first quarter of 2016.

The spokesman said the project was still viable for Petronas with prices today at around $US62/barrel.

Colin Wong, the senior vice-president of Petronas' engineering unit, also told reporters: "At the current oil prices, it is challenging. But if oil prices rise to US$70 a barrel, we can get double-digit internal rate of return."

All eyes on Australia Pacific

And with the Petronas announcement this week, the need becomes even more prescient.

All eyes will be on the likes of Petronas and Shell's Prelude, which is slated to go online mid-next year, to see whether this new development really takes off.

The ITF liaises with the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, the National offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority and DNV GL which standardises and certifies technologies, and has some "ad hoc" proposals around modelling ocean and wind conditions that would assist if there was an oil spill.

It stands to reason that oil companies are trying their best to not have an incident, but incidents do happen, so the key consideration, given the innovative nature of the technology, becomes how best to deal with that.

"It's very possible that Australia becomes a leading area of research, and hopefully business develops out of that," Brazier said.

"The mooring and marine growth are two areas identified as key; anchoring it is also important, as we have very calcareous soils on the bottom of the ocean which are quite unique; along with tropical cyclones, which we're already looking at."

"Where there are common industry issues - for example marine growth and tropical cyclones - pooling your money and knowledge together makes sense; but having a proprietary catalyst that gives you a business advantage … you're not exactly going to advertise that, or you might sell it under licence.

"We really get more in the areas where there's a known industry problem, and where collaboration must makes sense, both financially and from a knowledge base."

It's inevitable that a lot of people are looking at Total, Shell and Petronas which has a floating FLNG, to see before they make a final decision on it.

"Certainly the costs in Australia are prohibitive in a lot of ways, so I think [FLNG] something that will be looked at very hard," Brazier said.