Japan’s INPEX has officially opened the onshore LNG processing facilities of the Ichthys LNG project. Japanese, Australian and Northern Territory government representatives unveiled a plaque to commemorate four decades of future natural gas benefits that will flow from Ichthys LNG to the Northern Territory, Japan and the Asia Pacific region. First gas was produce in July this year and the first LNG cargo ship set sail in October. Hiroshige Sekō, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham, Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Senator the Hon.
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Regulators approve Santos’ $2.15B Quadrant Energy buy
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has approved Santos’ proposed acquisition of Quadrant Energy. Under the proposed transaction which was announced three months ago, Santos will acquire 100% of Quadrant Energy for $2.15 billion in addition to potential contingent payments flowing from the Dorado offshore oil discovery. After detailed investigation the ACCC said it was unlikely that the acquisition would result in a substantial reduction of competition in the supply of gas to users in Western Australia.

Fresh exploration potential in offshore Argentina highlighted in new study.
Explorers interested in Argentina’s upcoming offshore bid round will benefit from a new geological study which constrains the timing and structural context for Triassic to Early Cretaceous basin development prior to and during continental rifting of the South Atlantic Ocean. This new framework for basin evolution will inform exploration strategy and reduce investment risk in the unexplored and underexplored Argentina and Falklands regions. The Offshore Argentina and Falkland Islands SEEBASE® Multi-client Study and GIS is an integrated geological and geophysical study of basement and basin evolution on the Argentine Shelf.

PESA-ASEG WA 2nd Young Professional Speakers Night
Continuing from our first event in April, in mid-October PESA WA Young Professionals in conjunction with ASEG WA held our second speaker’s night. With approximately 20 members attending, the first speaker, Tasman Gilfeather-Clark, presented his work on SOM and machine learning, which formed part of Team Macquarie’s submission for the Frank Arnott Award. The second speaker, Vincent Crombez, gave a brief overview of his PhD. following work on unconventional fields in western Canada. The talks gave insights to two vastly different sides of different industries.

PESA WA 2nd annual weekend field trip – Perth Basin
On Friday, 12 October, 27 PESA members made their way to the Priory Hotel, Dongara to network, enjoy dinner and drinks and kick start the field trip headed by Darren Ferdinando, our trip leader. First stop on the Saturday was to survey magnificent spectacle of the cliffs at Coalseam Park. Along the banks of the Irwin River are some magnificent outcrops, with strata gently dipping, such that a hike up the river brings you to successively younger beds. The first rocks we looked at in the high cliff near the car park were, the imaginatively titled High Cliff Sandstone.

ADNOC unveils $132 billion capex program targeting gas exports and increased oil production
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (ADNOC) announced, has announced plans to launch a new integrated gas strategy and increase its oil production capacity to 4 million barrels per day (mmbpd) by the end of 2020 and 5mmbpd by 2030 following approval from the Supreme Petroleum Council. The company also announced capital investment growth of $132.33 billion between 2019-2023 and new discoveries of 1 billion barrels of oil. ADNOC’s gas strategy will add potential resources that will enable the UAE to achieve gas self-sufficiency, with the aim of potentially transitioning to a net gas exporter.

Gazprom and Sinopec capex to top US$259 bn by 2025
Gazprom and China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) are likely to be the top spenders among global oil and gas companies with new build capital expenditure (capex) on planned and announced projects across the oil and gas value chain during 2018–2025. According to a report by data and analytics company GlobalData, Gazprom and Sinopec’s spend across the oil and gas value chain' are likely to lead with an estimated capex of US$170.2bn expected on 93 oil and gas projects globally. Sinopec and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (Shell) follow with capex of US$88.9bn (69 projects) and US$84.5bn (107 projects), respectively.

Bass Oil achieves record oil production at Indonesia field
Bass Oil (ASX: BAS) has announced that it produced a record monthly oil production of 27,795 barrels of oil JV share, or 15,287 barrels Bass share, from its Indonesian Tangai-Sukananti KSO during the month of October. This represents an average daily rate of 896 barrels of oil per day, a 7% increase over the previous Joint Venture production record of 26,077 bbls set in October 2015 and a 63% increase over September 2018 production levels of 17,081 barrels of oil Joint Venture share.

Fast-Track PSTM Data from CGG’s Mozambique Multi-Client Survey available
CGG announced during Africa Oil Week that the fast-track 3D seismic data from its recent Mozambique multi-client survey in the outer Zambezi Delta Basin is now available for license. Interested international oil companies with an Africa focus can view the high-end data set in CGG data rooms in anticipation of the country’s 2019 licensing round. The data covers a 15,400 km2 area over blocks Z5-C and Z5-D and surrounding open acreage. It was acquired as part of a multi-client program agreed between CGG and Mozambique’s Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) in 2017.

TGS announces Q3 results earnings per share up 78%
Oslo-listed marine seismic data providers TGS has posted a net income of $16,8 million for the third quarter of 2018, compared to 9 million in the third quarter of 2017, with net operating revenues of $140.7 million showing a decrease of 1% compared to $141.7 million in Q3 2017.
