The New Zealand government is currently proposing a series of changes to the “Crown Minerals Act 1991” including:
The proposed amendments come in response to declining gas reserves within New Zealand (down 17% to January 2023) and associated energy security concerns.
The consultation period for these amendments is due to close on February 11, with changes possible during the year.
Santos announced in it’s fourth quarter report, that the Barossa project is 88.3% complete and still on track for first production in 2025. The second and third wells of the six-well program have been completed with good results, both the fourth and fifth wells have been spudded.
The project consists of up to eight subsea wells and a subsea production system bringing gas and condensate to an FPSO. Water, gas and condensate will be separated at the FPSO with gas transported via an approximately 300km pipeline to Darwin. Condensate is to be transferred from the FPSO to tankers for sale.
On 21 January 2025, Carnarvon Energy announced that the Santos operated Dorado Phase 1 liquids development will not enter FEED and hence the previous target of FID in 2025 will be deferred.
The Dorado Joint Venture of Santos (80% and operator), Carnarvon (10%) and CPC (10%) are continuing to review the timeline for the project with additional exploration wells within the permit planned for 2026.
Flaring emissions from global upstream oil and gas production activity increased by 7% from 2022 to 2023, according to latest Rystad Energy research. Upstream activities emit about 1 gigatonne per year of carbon dioxide (CO2) in total, with flaring contributing around 30% of those emissions in 2023 assuming 98% flaring efficiency on average. Flaring reduction is considered a low-hanging fruit for oil and gas companies trying to reduce their carbon footprint. However, this recent uptick underscores the challenges facing the industry, particularly in key producing countries such as Russia, Iran and Iraq.
Flaring — the process of burning off excess natural gas during oil extraction — has been a longstanding concern for environmentalists and policymakers. A
Beach Energy said it was pleased to announce successful commissioning and ramp-up of the Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project1, one of the world’s largest CCS projects.
All facilities, pipelines and injector wells have been commissioned and brought online. Following first CO2 injection on 30 September 2024, daily injection has reached capacity rates, exceeding expectations for the commissioning phase and indicating the project’s potential to capture and store approximately 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.
Moomba CCS is adjacent to the Moomba Gas Plant in the Cooper Basin, South Australia.
Finder underwent a transformational change from a pure explorer to a developer through the acquisition of discovered oil fields in Timor-Leste. Finder is now moving quickly to progress development activity on the Kuda Tasi and Jahal Oil Fields.
Aaron Bond (Exploration Manager) said: "We are busy working through our commitments and developing our organisation to establish the requirements of an early production opportunity and a full field development. Currently the project is in the concept select phase and progressing through the requirements to satisfy the gated process including targeting suitable Drilling Rigs, FPSO’s and SURF requirements.
With the applications of robotics continuously evolving, the oil and gas industry has emerged as a significant adopter of the technology to improve safety and efficiency of operations.
Robots equipped with advanced technologies are yielding increasingly positive results, bringing a continued transformation in the operations of oil and gas companies, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company,
GlobalData’s latest thematic report, “Robotics in Oil and Gas,” highlights the role of major oil and gas companies, such as ADNOC, BP, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Rosneft, Shell, and TotalEnergies in the development and adoption of robotics to enhance safety and productivity on the field.
On 19 December 2024, both Woodside and Chevron announced their agreement to an asset swap in which Woodside will acquire Chevron’s 16.67% interest in the North West Shelf Project and the North West Shelf Oil Project and it’s 20% interest in the Angel Carbon Capture and Storage Project. In turn, Chevron will acquire Woodside’s interest in 13% interest in the Wheatstone project and 65% interest in the Julimar-Brunello project.
Both companies have indicated that the transactions streamline and focus their respective portfolio’s.
Chevron will make a cash payment to Woodside of up to US$200 million paid at key milestones and contingent of the execution and hand over of Julimar Phase 3.
December 2024 saw the award of two additional Greenhouse Gas Assessment Permits:
These awards take the total number of GHG Assessment Permits within Australia to 17, with all major basins covered.
A GHG assessment permit authorizes the participating companies to explore the permit area for potential GHG storage formations or injection sites.
https://public.neats.nopta.gov.au/Opggs/Title/c83e6e69-55d8-4861-ad39-6b566e90e780
https://public.neats.nopta.gov.au/Opggs/Title/e3819c9d-c272-4774-8c39-6fc46f34aaa2
The highly anticipated drilling of the “Beehive” prospect took a step closer on 2 January this year with NOPSEMA accepting the environmental plan for the drilling of up to three exploration and / or appraisal wells on the structure.
Beehive is in Bonaparte Basin WA-488-P and is 100% owned by EOR Resources. The wells are to target a large Carbonate Platform and have a planned total depth of up to 6,000m. Approval is for any time up to 31 December 2029. EOG has stated it intends to drill the prospect in 2025/26.
Previous owners, Melbana have indicated the structure could contain up to 1.4 billion barrels of oil.