Australia NEWS

Woodside will delay the final approval date for its mega Browse gas project. Also, the company has decided to bring in the plans to sign off on its smaller Scarborough project. Woodside is focusing on the final investment decision on the $20.5 billion Browse project in the first half of 2021. In early 2020, it will sign off on the $11 billion Scarborough gas project and Pluto LNG expansion.

ConocoPhillips has farmed out its northern Australian business to Santos Ltd in a $1.39 billion deal. The acquisition, which will boost Santos’ output by 25%, is second in the line of major acquisitions made by the Australian firm this year. While ConocoPhillips will let go of the Darwin LNG plant and gas fields off northern Australia, it will hold onto its stakes in the Australia Pacific LNG plant in Queensland.

Canadian EPC major, SNC-Lavalin has secured a contract from Shell Australia for the provision of operations and maintenance workforce for the QGC upstream asset. The three-year-long contract will see SNC-Lavalin providing approximately 300 personnel to continue the existing operation and maintenance program for Shell. The QGC asset comprises of 24 field compression stations, six central gas processing plants (CPP), five sales stations and one power station.

Mitsui has decided to sell its 35% stakes in Australian BassGas project. Rothschild is advising the Japanese company on the proposed disposal. Mitsui's share of output from the BassGas in the year to June 2019 was approx 1.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. It has come up with the sale plan at the same time when Exxon has out its ageing Bass Strait oil and gas assets up for sale.

Chinese oil major, CNPC has entered into a contract to supply diesel to Arrow Energy, its Australian JV. The three years long contract will enable CNPC to increase refined oil product sales in Australia, the Chinese oil major said in a statement. Australia’s coal seam gas producer, Arrow Energy is jointly owned by CNPC and Royal Dutch Shell, and was acquired in 2010.

Australia’s clean energy regulator today said that the country has achieved its 2020 target for producing electricity from large-scale renewable energy ahead of schedule. The achievement for Australia has come despite the slow wind and solar investment, and more than a decade of climate policy uncertainty. The target first set in 2001 aimed at producing 33,000 GWh of power from large-scale renewable energy by 2020.

Chevron Corp yesterday informed about launching one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage projects. The project involves infusing carbon dioxide into a deep reservoir under an island off Western Australia at Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project. Chevron said that approximately 3.4 to 4 million tonnes of CO2 will be buried every year after the facility reaches full capacity. Gases emitted from the Gorgon field contain at least 14% CO2.

Australian E&P firm, Woodside Petroleum registered lower revenue in the second-quarter earnings released yesterday. Woodside saw a 32% dip in revenues, the first decline in the last six quarters. Revenue dropped over the extension in the maintenance period at the Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and weaker prices. Woodside recorded a lower production for the quarter at 17.3 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe).

Australian energy firm, Santos Ltd has registered record gas production in the second quarter, supported by stronger output across its gas assets. Santos recorded a jump from 14.2 mmboe last year to 18.6 mmboe. The production figure beat analysts’ expectation of 17.78 mmboe. Santos also saw a jump in sales for the three-month period to 22.4 mmboe from 19.1 mmboe in the previous year, producing $959 million in revenue.

As the world’s biggest LNG exporter struggles with a looming gas shortage, imports of liquefied natural gas to Australia now appear "highly realistic", says the U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil. According to the experts, the industry needs at least $6.9 billion to meet longer term gas demand. Further, this would bring down high prices which are affecting many manufacturers.

EPC giant, TechnipFMC has secured a contract from ConocoPhillips for the provision of the subsea production system for the Barossa project, offshore Australia. The scope of the contract includes the engineering, design and fabrication of wellheads, manifolds and control system, apart from the installation and commissioning assistance. ConocoPhillips operates the Barossa Caldita project where Santos and SK E&S are partners.

Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company, Woodside has inked a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with China-based ENN Group. The agreement requires Woodside to supply 1 million tpy of LNG from its portfolio for a 10-year duration, starting in 2025. The agreement which was signed during the LNG 2019 conference in Shanghai, comes on the backdrop of the cooperation agreement signed in October 2018.

Aker Solutions has been awarded a master contract for subsea compression system. The contract is for the Chevron Australia-operated Jansz-Io field, offshore Australia. Under this master contract, the first service contract will be for front-end engineering and design of a subsea compression station in order to boost gas recovery from the field. The scope of this contract will also include an unmanned power and control floater, and field system engineering services.

Shell and PetroChina's joint venture Arrow Energy has won leases for a project worth $7.2 billion. The project aims at the development of Australia's biggest coal seam gas resource. In order to cut the project's cost, Arrow will use QCLNG's gas processing and pipeline infrastructure. According to the Queensland government, 14 leases have been granted to Arrow Energy for the Surat project.

Japanese offshore floating platform supplier, MODEC International has secured the FEED contract for Woodside Energy’s SNE Field Development Phase 1 floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility. The total capacity of the FPSO is estimated to be 100,000 bbl/day, with first oil expected in 2022. The design of FPSO will be carried out in a way that it allows the integration of subsequent SNE development phases.

Australian oil and gas giant, Santos has informed about producing first oil from the Van Gogh infill project, offshore Western Australia. The project, which commenced in September of 2018, involved drilling of two subsea wells and their completion. The wells were, then, connected into existing offshore infrastructure. Santos holds 52.5% stakes and the operatorship of the Van Gogh-Coniston-Novara project.

Australia-based UGL has received contract extensions from its clients to continue the maintenance and turnaround services. The CIMIC unit said that total revenue generation from these contracts will reach approximately AUS$200 million. MD, UGL said: “We are proud of our close working partnerships with leaders in the oil and gas sector in Australia. These contracts reflect UGL’s reputation for strong performance and safe delivery of maintenance and shutdown services.”

Australian oil and gas giant, Woodside has reported a significant jump in its 4Q18 earnings. Woodside generated AUS$1419 million in sales revenue, marking a 43% surge from 4Q2017. The fourth quarter seemed very fruitful for Woodside, where not only its production jumped by 10%, but it also achieved 99.7% reliability at Pluto LNG. Additionally, the production from Wheatstone LNG Train 1 and Train 2 continued to exceed expectations.