Australia NEWS

Santos has completed its sale of interests in the Sampang PSC and Madura Offshore PSC in Indonesia, and Vietnam Block 12W PSC. It follows the company’s announcement in May 2018 when Santos decided to sell its non-core Asian portfolio to Ophir Energy plc. Santos received a cash proceed of $144 million after the completion. It will help the company reduce its debt which was $2.2 billion till Aug. 31, 2018.

Santos Ltd will buy the privately held Quadrant Energy in a $2.15 billion deal. Santos will then have access to the biggest oil field in Australia in over two decades. Santos informed that in order to leave its dividend policy unaffected, it will fund the deal in cash. Also, after this deal, the annual production of Santos will rise by 32%.

Hoegh LNG of Norway has won a tender to supply a floating LNG terminal to a consortium for Australia's east coast. The Australian Industrial Energy is looking to import LNG to the eastern coast from 2020. On Monday, the consortium informed that it has signed an agreement after which it can rightfully rent a floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) of Hoegh LNG. Australian Industrial Energy group includes Japan's JERA and Marubeni Corp.

Australia's largest E&P Company, Woodside Petroleum Ltd reported a 6% rise in its half-year earnings backed by the effective performance of company’s Wheatstone and Pluto LNG projects. In the present financial year, i.e. 2018, the company expects the production to lie between 87 mmboe to 91 mmboe. Furthermore, the Wheatstone project is likely to add approximately 13 million barrels of oil equivalent to the annual output after becoming fully operational.

Taiwan-based CPC Corp has informed that gas production has started at the offshore well of the Ichthys LNG project in Australia. CPC holds a 2.625% stake in the project, which makes it the third largest stakeholder after Inpex Corp and Total SA. The project is estimated to produce upto 8.9 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of LPG annually, alongwith 36.5 million barrels of condensate.

Japanese oil major, Inpex Corp informed on Monday that its long-delayed project of $40 billion is back on track. The company has started production of gas in its northern Australian Ichthys field. Reportedly, Inpex will start the export from September end and the project will take approximately three years to reach its full capacity. It will be Japan’s first biggest and major energy development operation.

Chevron Australia has awarded UK-based TechnipFMC with a subsea installation contract for the Gorgon Stage 2 development. Under the contract terms, TechnipFMC will carry out project management, design engineering, transportation, installation and pre-commissioning of umbilicals and flying leads as well as manifolds. Chevron-operated Gorgon project, which is a JV of 6 oil firms, is into its Phase 2 development to ensure production is sustained for future gas supply.

Australian E&P giant has updated on the newly commenced second LNG train at the Wheatstone LNG plant in Australia. The company reported the production of 22.1 MMboe in the second quarter. The Wheatstone Train 2, which began operation at the Chevron-run plant last month, has reportedly achieved high production rates. Woodside reported over $1 billion in sales revenue recently.

The EnergyQuest reported a hike in Australian LNG revenue, reaching $30.8 billion in 2017-18. The hike climbed on the back of increasing export to China, largely from Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone projects. Gorgon and Wheatstone shared 41% of the Australian LNG export during the last 12 months. The increased export of cargoes to China has accounted for about 34% of LNG shipments.

Downer EDI has secured a five-year-long maintenance and support services contract from Chevron. Downer will provide its services for Chevron’s Western Australia operations. The scope of the contract covers the maintenance of non-process infrastructure assets at the Chevron-operated Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities. Downer has a long-term work history with Chevron Australia, and this contract will, all the more, serve to strengthen their relationship.

US oil major, Chevron is planning to lay-off around 400 jobs in Australia. This comes months later of Chevron’s approval of a new construction project and backing an LNG jobs initiative. It is believed that the layoffs will be in accordance with the value chain alignment study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group to assess the roles required to sustain Chevron’s LNG operations in Australia.

In a $450 million deal, Malaysian-Sapura Energy has bagged 9 different contracts across Malaysia, India, Australia, and Mexico. Sapura will be conducting a series of diverse drilling and engineering services via its subsidiaries in these nations. Sapura Energy Berhad president and CEO have stated that the new contract wins are a continuation of Sapura’s strategy to expand their global footprint.

ConocoPhillips and Santos Energy, who are working together on the Barossa offshore project in Australia, have awarded three FEED contracts for the development. The engineering contract for the design of an FPSO has been awarded to MODEC and a consortium of TechnipFMC and Samsung Heavy Industries, as a design competition. The third contract was secured by INTECSEA for the subsea infrastructure, which involves umbilicals, flowlines, risers and gas export pipeline.

The Australian gas pipeline company APA has received a $9.8b takeover offer from a Hong Kong based conglomerate led by CK Infrastructure Holdings yesterday, with the Australian firm agreeing to open its books. APA, whose assets include some 15000 km long gas transmission pipelines and storage, with wind and solar farms across Australia, said that it was in shareholders’ interests to engage further.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) yesterday reported about the expansion of global trade in LNG. EIA quoted the International Association of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL) as reporting a 10 percent increase from 2016 and the largest annual volume increase on record in LNG trade. Japan remained the largest LNG importer in 2017, followed by China. Australia and US were among the countries with the largest increments.

Santos, today, rejected Harbour’s final “take it or leave it” $10.8b bid for company’s final takeover, and henceforth, terminated all discussions. Harbour made a final offer for Santos this week after a sheer rise in global crude oil prices. The company indicated that Harbour’s offer did not represent it’s true worth and accepting their bid was not in the best of its interests.

The Australian Government on Tuesday released 21 new acreages for offshore oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight. The announcement was followed by protesters gathering outside the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association in Adelaide to oppose new oil and gas drilling in the bight. Matt Canavan, the Federal Resources Minister, said that acreage release was part of the government’s commitment to meeting Australia’s future energy needs.

Israel will receive a cargo of U.S. shale gas. Since exports began in 2016, it is the first to arrive in the Middle Eastern nation from America’s shores. The vessel is called British Diamond and is beneficially owned by BP Plc. America is poised to compete with Qatar and Australia in global LNG dominance in the times to come.