Wood has been awarded a new contract by IRPC Plc for its Maximum Aromatics (MARS) project, leveraging its operations in the south-east Asian oil and gas market. Wood will provide frontend engineering design (FEED) for the world-scale paraxylene complex to be built at IRPC’s existing integrated petrochemical complex in Rayong Province, Thailand. The one-year contract will be delivered from Wood’s offices in Sriracha, Thailand, and secures around 100 jobs in-country.
Industry


Geoscience awards its top guns with national honour
Two of Australia’s foremost proponents of better ways to discover our natural resources using great science have been honoured in Adelaide by Australia’s Geoscience sector. The title of “National Geoscience Champion” has been bestowed by the Australian Geoscience Council (AGC) on each of Dr Marita Bradshaw of Canberra and Emeritus Professor David Groves of Perth, at an industry peer dinner in Adelaide hosted as part of the AGC’s inaugural four-day Convention last week in Adelaide.

PESA QLD 2018 Symposium Exploration: Back in the game
September 6th saw the return of the PESA Queensland annual Symposium. The theme this year was Exploration: Back in the Game, a fitting theme as increasing oil price sees an increase in activity within the state.
The festivities kicked off on Wednesday evening at the Southbank Beer Garden with an Icebreaker where the presenters, organisers, attendees and sponsors mingled. This casual affair was enjoyed by all and has been a regular feature of the Annual PESA QLD Symposium.
As delegates arrived Thursday morning, they were greeted by the aroma from the Comet Ridge Limited sponsored coffee cart and a selection of Exhibition Booths presented by ALS, ERC, GeoConsult, GSQ, Synterra and Velseis.

The value Geoscience brings to Australia
IN an opening address in Adelaide at the first session of the four day Australian Geoscience Council Convention, Geoscience Australia Chief Executive, Dr James Johnson, said geoscience was providing immense value to society, from the economic benefits of resource development through to GPS positioning, underpinned by the science of geodesy. “It is important that we, as geoscientists, act as ambassadors for our science, to raise awareness of the general public on how geoscience benefits society. Even Earth observations from space are becoming increasingly important in monitoring environmental change and in natural resource management,” Dr Johnson said.

Significant UK shale gas development “still a long way off”
Following the announcement that Cuadrilla Resources will start fracking operations at its shale gas exploration wells in Lancashire, leading industry commentators still view hydraulic stimulation at an embryonic phase in Britain. Will Scargill, Senior Oil & Gas Analyst at data and analytics company GlobalData, said of the development: ‘‘Although beginning fracking is an important step for Cuadrilla, we’re still a long way from shale gas playing a significant role in the UK energy sector.

USA soars to top of the oil producing pops
The United States surpassed Russia in crude oil production for the first time in two decades, both in June and August 2018, new figures show. The United States already exceeded Saudi Arabia in oil production back in February 2018, a first in more than 20 years, according to estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency expects that U.S. crude oil production will continue to outdo Russian and Saudi Arabian production for the remaining months of 2018 and through 2019. According to the US Department of State, increased U.S.

Jadestone satisfies conditions for Montara acquisition from PTTEP
Jadestone Energy has satisfied all conditions precedent to its proposed acquisition of the Montara oil project, offshore Australia, from Thailand’s PTTEP. The independent oil and gas producer announced on Friday that the transaction was expected to complete within 10 days. PTTEP announced its decision to divest its 100% stake in the Montara field to align with the company’s business strategy aimed to focus on the operations and projects in strategic locations back in mid-July.

YPP monthly lunch informal networking series
PESA WA’s Young Petroleum Professional Chapter (YPP) launched its new Lunch Social Catch-up Series, with the first catch-up kicked off on Friday 14 September at Cloisters Food Hall in Perth CBD. In attendance there were nine young professionals, who are very aspiring individuals with experience ranging from freshly graduated to over 5 years in the industry, giving a great range of knowledge and opportunities for the new professionals to discuss career progression and gain insight from the more seasoned within the group. Various companies in the industry were represented in this gathering: TGS, Santos, Discover Geoscience, Murphy Oil, Chemostrat and Carnarvon.

Cairn evaluating FPSO tender bids for SNE
Cairn Energy is assessing tender responses for the FPSO facility and subsea infrastructure for its SNE field development, offshore Senegal, ahead of the front end engineering and design (FEED) phase planned for the fourth quarter of this year. Cairn, as operator, has a 40% working interest in three blocks offshore Senegal (Sangomar Deep, Sangomar Offshore and Rufisque Offshore) alongside partners, Woodside 35% WI, FAR 15% WI, and the Senegal National Oil Company, Petrosen 10% WI, which has the right to increase its equity to 18% on development.

PESA WA Branch Evening Lecture Series
In addition to the successful PESA WA Branch Technical Luncheon Series held this year, the Evening Lecture Series has been going very well too. Our Evening Lecture Series is a great platform for networking over canapes and drinks accompanied by a technical talk in a very relaxed environment. The event usually starts around 5.30pm at The Georges Hotel. The first evening lecture that PESA WA hosted this year was on 17 April with Chris Cubitt as the guest lecturer. His topic was on the “Drill cuttings, core, wireline and seismic – a match made in heaven!
